International agricultural technology transfer: Theory and application

Abstract

The gap that exists between the technologies in developed and less developed countries leads to the possibility and necessity of agricultural technology transfer. The lower cost of transfer compared with costs of local development leads to profitable transfer for recipient country. Recipient country must perform local research to adapt the transferred technology to their local needs and to ensure that benefits are distributed in an equitable manner. Is it in the interest of the donor country to sell technology to less developed country? Conventional arguments consider only whether technology transfer to less developed country will be against the donor country's interest in agricultural product exports. It is incomplete. Economic surplus concept has been applied here to discuss both producer's and consumer's gain or lose. An empirical analysis of the U.S.-Mexico agricultural technology transfer showed that both Mexico and United States benefited from the technology transfer.