Management of Agricultural Research

Need and Opportunities for Improvement Gao ID: CED-77-121 August 23, 1977

Although the extremely complex and highly diversified agricultural research system in the United States has made notable contributions to the Nation's well-being, there is an increasing realization that an up-to-date national plan needs to be developed and maintained if the system is to be responsive to future critical problems and needs and if limited public dollars are to be wisely used. The Agricultural Research Service, the largest organization in the Federal-State research system, could improve its research through better planning, project selection, and review of ongoing work.

Until recently, the Service placed most of its emphasis on short-range planning. In fiscal year 1977, the Service recognized the need for long-range planning by categorizing research under national and special research programs and developing a long-range planning document for each program area. Much of the technical and administrative data needed for developing strategies was unavailable, inaccurate, or fragmented.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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