ABSTRACT
Technology is one of the most potent forces affecting agriculture, both from historical and contemporary perspectives. In the developed world, technology has caused the supply of food to expand faster than demand, precipitating severe adjustment problems in the agricultural sector. This chapter reviews selected theories of technical change in light of the new biotechnologies. In examining the theories of technical change and what they might imply for the new agricultural biotechnologies, it may be useful to have in mind a definition of technical change. Three theories of technical change in agriculture that are applicable to biotechnology are the treadmill theory, the induced innovation theory, and the diffusion theory. The implication is that a portion, if not much, of the observed differences in the spatial patterns and temporal rates of diffusion can be explained by institutional behavior. Biotechnology innovations are arriving in a bewildering variety of products throughout the many industries in the agricultural sector.
