Commodity research programs from the demand side

Agricultural research has traditionally focused on production issues and the economic discipline supported this research by studying the production process and its conditions. The authors argue that the study of marketing and demand issues usefully complements production research. This is because, apart from the producer, the consumer is also a judge of new technology; and because constraints to improved or increased utilization might be identified, which carry a higher potential for successful research than production constraints. Demand studies for orientating agricultural research show conceptual symmetry with production studies but their inclusion allows for better judgement on the potential of alternative research ventures and for improved targeting of agricultural research objectives, such as equity, rural income and price stability. Demand analysis shoud be consistent with the state of maturity of the commodity research program. Demand studies can be organized around the themes of research strategies, technology design and technology transfer. This is afterwards illustrated with the approaches taken by CIAT's cassava and bean program, showing that the exact subjects of study are rather commodity specific eng