![]() In 2002, US agricultural production was more than five times its 1910 level. (2008) show that for the US, between 18 average yields of maize increased by a factor of 6 and wheat yields by a factor of 3.5. The two simplest productivity measures are partial: yield and the average product of labour. The conclusion summarizes and evaluates the evidence.Ģ. Section 5 reports estimates of the levels of agricultural investment that would be needed to end hunger by 2025. This represents a threat to the public good nature of agricultural technology on which the green revolution was based. Section 4 explains the effects of the expansion of private R&D, biotechnology and patents, which have together led to a rapid concentration in the sector, so that there are now less than half a dozen major producers of new varieties. TFP also distinguishes between technical progress, efficiency change and input intensification, so TFP growth has different implications, according to its cause. These partial measures do not take account of this substitution process, but total factor productivity (TFP) indices do. Labour productivity increases as human labour is replaced first by animal and then mechanical power, which has been driven predominantly by private sector R&D. Increases in yields are crucial to output growth, but labour productivity growth is dominant in the DCs and is most closely correlated with wages and incomes in the LDCs. Section 3 addresses international comparisons of R&D expenditures and different measures of productivity growth. This encompasses the role of the DCs in generating basic advances that spill over to the developing counties and the role of extension services in the dissemination of technology. Thus, §2 outlines the way in which R&D generates new technologies and extension transmits them to farmers, increasing productivity domestically and internationally. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (English translation)Īgreement on trade related aspects of intellectual property rights ![]() ![]() Lack of income growth in SSA is seen as the most insoluble problem.Ĭonsultative Group on International Agricultural Research Estimates of the increased R&D expenditures needed to feed 9 billion people by 2050 and how these should be targeted, especially by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), show that the amounts are feasible and that targeting sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia can best increase output growth and reduce poverty. This represents a threat to the global commons in agricultural technology on which the green revolution has depended. These companies are accumulating intellectual property to an extent that the public and international institutions are disadvantaged. The public sector share of R&D expenditures has fallen and there has been rapid concentration in the private sector, where six multinationals now dominate. Total factor productivity has generally increased, however it is measured. However, growth in output value per hectare has not declined in the developing countries and labour productivity growth has increased except in the EU. The declining growth rates of public R&D expenditures are related to output growth and crop yields, where growth rates have also fallen, especially in the developed countries. The relationships between basic and applied agricultural R&D, developed and developing country R&D and between R&D, extension, technology and productivity growth are outlined.
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