1990 Supplement Publications of the International ... - IRRI books

M.L. Morris
CIMMYT Economics Paper No. 1. Determining Comparative
Advantage Through DRC Analysis: Guidelines Emerging from
CIMMYT’s Experience
1990. 42 pages. 17.5 x 25 cm. Perfect bound. ISSN 0188-2414.
Available in English. HDC $7.00. LDC $3.00.
First in a new series, this paper will be of interest to administrators in
national agricultural research systems. Using examples drawn from
a series of case studies conducted over the past five years by the
CIMMYT Economics Program, it first describes the basic methodology
of domestic resource cost analysis (DRC), addressing a number
of practical and conceptual problems commonly encountered in
applying this framework for empirically measuring comparative
advantage. The paper then summarizes lessons learned over the
years at CIMMYT and evaluates DRC as a tool for applied policy
analysis and research resource allocation.
J. Carney
CiMMYT Economics Paper No. 2. Triticale Production in the
Central Mexican Highlands: Smallholders’ Experiences and
Lessons for Research
1990. 110 pp. 17.5 x 25 cm. Perfect bound. ISSN 0188-2414. Available
in English and Spanish. HDC $7.00. LDC $3.00.
This paper examines the triticale utilization patterns of smallholders
in the central Mexican highlands, where farmers have cultivated
triticale for over 20 years. The case study elucidates several factors
important to the design of appropriate and sustainable technologies
for smallholders. First, indigenous knowledge of microenvironments
with different edaphic and moisture properties provides the basis for
on-farm cropexperimentation. Second, this experimentation is often
geared to the needs of an agropastoral system, which is crucial to
rural livelihood and welfare. The crop-livestock components of the
farming system permit smallholders to adjust their subsistence and
marketing strategies to social and economic change. In the central
Mexican highlands, it is the knowledge of triticale’s uses rather than
any specific food grain variety developed by researchers that has
maintained triticale in the farming system. This case study concludes
that an interdisciplinary research framework building on the best of
traditional agricultural practices, is pivotal to the design of appropriate
technologies for smallholders.
46 CENTER PUBLICATIONS