INDUCING MECHANISMS OF TECHNICAL PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE: EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH ELEMENTS

Abstract

The object of this paper is to open the scientific and technological "black box" of the agricultural sector in order to show how some basic physical and biochemical processes inside the soil-plant complex play an important role as "inducement mechanisms and focusing devices" in the innovation dynamics. The ecological specificity of the productive process in agriculture makes it much more complex and interdependent than those in the industry, involving an almost compulsive formulation of problems. These problems, in turn, have been very important either in the shaping of the so called modern agricultural practices, as in the searching for alternatives. The agricultural productive process is based on a very complex ecosystem, which reacts to the interventions it is submitted. These reactions have to be controlled as to produce the results the farmers are searching for. So, they have played an important role in coordinating the research activities of the different sources of agricultural innovation (industries, public research institutions, etc.). This explain, in large extend, the convergence of the different technological trajectories defining the present technological regime in agriculture.