The duplication of expertise and resources by universities from state to state is counterproductive and a stark contrast to the forces reshaping agribusiness. “Industry is consolidating and integrating with alarming speed. They now work with people around the world on production systems that cut across state and national borders,” says Dan Dooley, an attorney, farmer and immediate past president of the Council for Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching. Faced with broad and complex problems, industry is looking to universities for answers and not finding the expertise and answers it needs, Dooley adds.

The consequence is that industry and others will look beyond universities for answers. “There are quite a few Land Grant universities in danger of becoming insignificant,” says Arthur Hecker, vice-president of research and development and scientific affairs for the Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories. Industry, he adds, values programs that complement one another with comprehensive tools and talent.

Program duplication by state universities not only dilutes intellectual horsepower but wastes money and goodwill. “The more we collaborate, the better we can justify the collective benefits of the decentralized system,” says Colien Heffernan, administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service. “Part of our long-term survival is to demonstrate how to work together, not just for survival, but to serve our constituents better.”

Multi-state collaboration “is the right thing to do,” Dooley says. “We’ll be stronger in the end and better positioned for additional funds and activities when the economy improves.”

Under ideal circumstances, says veteran educator Ian Maw, the available faculty expertise of colleges and universities would match the needs of their constituents in research, teaching and Extension. Today imbalances exist in that supply and demand equation due to declining resource bases, a change in the variety of clientele served as well as their needs, and technological changes.