A Critical Appraisal of Agricultural Economics in the Mid-Sixties

Abstract

In spite of the many developments that have occurred in agricultural economics, it is only barely a science and will have difficulty improving its scientific standing. Science is characterized by an ability to predict real world occurrences with an acceptable degree of warrantability. Agricultural economics cannot do this now primarily because the actors in its models are endowed with a greater portion of omniscience than living man can claim and because they are clothed by their analysts with a rationality defined too simply as maximization of an uncomplex criterion. To prescribe for decision makers in the real world demands large elements of the artist in the counselor, calling on him to analyze and advise with experience, knack, ingenuity as well as with empirically verifiable knowledge. Agricultural economics is as much or more an art as it is a science in the service of unquestionable value it renders to policy.