Government‘s Support for Farmers’ Knowledge Dissemination and its improvement

Abstract

All over the World in evaluation of economic growth factors, knowledge is playing more and more important role. The supporters of the concept of knowledge-based economy (Burton–Jones, 1999; Romer, 1986; 1990) address knowledge as the resource necessary for the growth of competitive ability. Only the countries which applying up-to-date knowledge create innovative products or services, may expect higher price, and at the same time higher surplus value. Finally due to higher income received, higher taxes are paid, budged increases and larger opportunities for solving the problems of social isolation appear. Facing such a great benefit of knowledge the question arises whether the state should not support knowledge spread at the same time ensure further growth of competitive ability and welfare of the country. The opinions of scientists are different on this point. Krugman (1986, 1994, 1996) claims that the market perfectly solves questions, and intervention may only impair the mechanism of self-adjustment unfreezing noneffective structure of the market. Other scientists (Vilpišauskas, 2004; Soete, 2002) think that the state must bear the responsibility for assurance of knowledge spread. Talking exceptionally about agricultural support there are also some disagreements about the form of the support for farmers‘. In Lithuania farmers are rendered support in various forms: investment support, manufacture subsidies, support for knowledge spread, and others. Only one tendency of the support is analysed in this article, i.e., the support for knowledge dissemination. In the article the effect of knowledge spread on the growth and competitive ability of the state is emphasised. The attention is directed to the classification of research and due to this also to the possibilities of different knowledge spread. Usually knowledge is useful only while it is new, therefore it is subject to up-to-date scientific research. The competitive ability is most efficiently increased upon prompting basic research and knowledge spread obtained as the result of this research. Such promotion is indirect business promotion, since usually functions of basic research and knowledge spread are performed by scientific institutes. The article determines the effect of the support for knowledge spread on the profit of farmers‘. Due to the data of questionnaires it was determined, that farmers embracing the support for knowledge spread obtain better results. Still farmers, who do not find out anything new during the seminars, achieve similar results to those which are achieved by the farmers, who obtained knowledge in the seminars. Therefore it may be said, that the possibilities of farmer’s knowledge spread improvement is not completely used. In this case seminars should be differentiated according to levels, because in the future expansion of supply of free of charge seminars and trainings, increasingly larger number of farmers in sponsored seminars will not obtain any new knowledge. Knowledge promulgated in the seminars should be based only on basic research, in such a way a number of farmers, who find out nothing new in a seminar, would decrease. Knowledge is constantly getting old, besides learning is a continuous process. Therefore the demand of farmers for new knowledge should always remain provided the spread in the seminars and trainings is really new. Participation of the farmers in the seminars had some influence on sufficiency of their knowledge, since those, who did not lack knowledge about agricultural business, more often took part in the seminars compared to those, who lack knowledge about agricultural business. When facing the changes in technologies, knowledge demand should affect even those, who recently had enough knowledge in agricultural business. Thus, after the evaluation of research results, the assumption that the impact of knowledge spread on the results of farmers will remain, as well as the benefit of support for knowledge spread and farmers‘ profits, may be sustained. Therefore the extent of support for knowledge spread is worth to be increased on the account of other support means.