This document discusses agricultural productivity, including its definition as the ratio of agricultural outputs to inputs. It also discusses factors that influence agricultural productivity growth, such as mechanization, fertilizers, irrigation, and pesticides. The importance of increasing agricultural productivity is outlined, such as promoting agricultural growth, alleviating poverty, and ensuring a more stable food supply. Methods for measuring agricultural productivity are also summarized, including total factor productivity and index number techniques. Data needs for growth models include land improvements and capital formation. As an example, the document notes that U.S. agricultural productivity rose significantly between 1950-2000 due to new technologies, with milk, corn, and farm output per hour all increasing substantially over that period.
2. Agricultural Productivity
Sources of agricultural productivity
Factors influencing growth in agriculture
Importance of agricultural productivity
Measuring agricultural productivity
Data needs for growth models
Data issues
US Agricultural productivity
3. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
• Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs
to agricultural inputs.
• Output is usually measured as the market value of final output, which
excludes intermediate products such as corn feed used in the meat
industry
• This output value may be compared to many different types of inputs
such as labour and land (yield). These are called partial measures of
productivity.
• Agricultural productivity may also be measured by what is termed total
factor productivity (TFP).
• This method of calculating agricultural productivity compares an index of
agricultural inputs to an index of outputs.
• This measure of agricultural productivity was established to remedy the
shortcomings of the partial measures of productivity , notably that it is
often hard to identify the factors cause them to change.
• Changes in TFP are usually attributed to technological improvements.
6. IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
Growth and competitiveness on agricultural market
Income distribution and saving
Agricultural growth
Alleviate poverty
More stable food supply
Lower food prices
Increase in wages
Lower opportunity cost
More consumers
Labor migration
More efficient distribution of scarce sources
10. • Between 1950 and 2000, during the
so-called "second agricultural
revolution of modern times", U.S.
agricultural productivity rose fast,
especially due to the development of
new technologies.
• For example, the average amount of
milk produced per cow increased
from 5,314 pounds to 18,201 pounds
per year (+242%), the average yield
of corn rose from 39 bushels to 153
bushels per acre (+292%), and each
farmer in 2000 produced on average
12 times as much farm output per
hour worked as a farmer did in 1950.
11. REFERENCES
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May: 5-23.
Ahearn, M., Yee, J., Ball, E. & Nehring, R. 1998. Agricultural
productivity in the United States. Resource Economics Division,
Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Agriculture Information Bulletin no. 740.
Antholt, C.H. 1994. Getting ready for the twenty-first century:
technical change and institutional modernization in agriculture. World
Bank Technical Paper #217. February.
Antle, J. 1983. Infrastructure and aggregate agricultural productivity:
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31 April: 609-619.
Antle, J. & Capalbo, S. 1988. An introduction to recent developments
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