ABSTRACT
Public support for agricultural research dated from the late eighteenth century, when the Calcutta Botanical Garden was founded. Since 1905 the central government had set aside funds for research, demonstration, and education in the provinces, supervised by full-time directors of agriculture. The pattern of agricultural research in post-independence India might be explained by the neo-Marxian theory of institutions as a consequence of social divisions. Agricultural research changed, but slowly at first and from the top downward. Indian agricultural scientists took justifiable pride in their professional accomplishments, and were thin-skinned about suggestions they could do better. As with the rest of the agricultural technology complex, questions remain about how fundamentally India’s research system changed the way it operates. The Rockefeller Foundation itself subsequently tried to sponsor private sector hybrid seed production, holding meetings with Tata, DeKalb Agricultural Association, and other companies on the matter in 1960 and 1961.
