The success of seed-fertilizer technologies and government subsidies in attaining nearly self-sufficient rice production in the mid-1980s encouraged the Indonesian government soon afterward to shift resources away from food crops and toward export-oriented crops. These shifts were reinforced by...

• By 2050, global agricultural demand is projected to grow by 70-100 percent due to population growth, energy demands, and higher incomes in developing countries. Meeting this demand from existing agricultural resources will require raising global agricultural total factor productivity (TFP)1...

Improving agricultural productivity has been the world’s primary defense against a recurring Malthusian crisis— where needs of a growing population outstrip the ability of humankind to supply food. Over the last half-century, world population doubled while food supply tripled, even as land...

Meeting growing global demand for food, fiber, and biofuel requires robust investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) from both public and private sectors. This study examines global R&D spending by private industry in seven agricultural input sectors, food manufacturing, and...

Rapid increases in agricultural commodity prices during 2006-08 raised concerns that agricultural productivity growth may not be keeping up with increasing demand for agricultural commodities. ERS has developed a new index of total factor productivity (TFP) in global agriculture to provide a...

Can Productivity Growth in Agriculture be Continued?

Brazil now is the largest coffee, sugar, and fruit juice producer, second-largest soybean and beef producer, and third-largest corn and broiler producer. It has overtaken the U.S. in poultry exports, nearly matches the U.S. in soybean exports, and dominates global trade in frozen orange juice....

We use an index number approach to measure total factor productivity (TFP) growth in Indonesian crop and livestock agriculture between 1961-2000. A Tornqvist index is developed to minimize biases that may result from relative price changes in factor and output weights. The results indicate that...