AbstractThe role of congruence between agricultural research and farm development is discussed, in particular with respect to a low-yield high-cost pattern of agricultural development in Venezuela. Evidence shows that research priorities were set according to crops suited to that development pattern, without regard to any long-term congruence with respect to a better handling of possible ‘external economies’ at the farm level (annual light radiation distribution pattern, soil humidity control and fertilizers' consumption). Given a highly fragmented institutional framework and a late involvement of the local scientific community in the debate on prevailing policies, this involvement is regarded as ill-timed and ineffectual vis-a-vis the established technological pattern.