ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the technology dimension of competitiveness. It reviews the conceptual issue of impediments to agricultural technology transfer and then turns to evidence from crop variety and invention data to examine several types of technology transfer between the United States and its competitors. Evidence also exists for somewhat less direct forms of transfer of technology. Patent citation data tell something about the "intellectual parentage" of an invention. Invention can be classified as mechanical, electrical, chemical, biochemical or biotechnological, managerial, or policy. The Chakrabarty decision providing plant protection to living organisms has extended traditional patent system protection to much of the modern biochemical or biotechnological invention. The origin of the inventions varies considerably between fields. The US government has only minor importance in agricultural invention. The foreign share can be considered an index of direct transfer since firms are protecting products and process in the US market.
