This study provides a measure of the current state of technical
knowledge determined in part by current and past public investment in
rice research. With respect to the technical knowledge, rice production
function is estimated. The result reveals that the improvement of technical
knowledge enhances the land productivity and also leads to the changes
in rice production structure. Since rice planted areas are expanded along
with the employment of agricultural manual workers, the cost is no doubt
increased. The public rice research represents a crucial driving force for
encouraging the growth of production. Further, the social welfare deriving
from public investment in rice research is estimated by using Marshallian
concept. The result reveals that the cumulative economic surplus is quite
high. As a consequence, the B/C ratio implies that those investments generate
a benefit of 6.92, 6.25 and 5.68 Baht for every Baht spent by 5, 10 and
15% discount rate, respectively.
