Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to agricultural inputs.[1] While individual products are usually measured by weight, their varying densities make measuring overall agricultural output difficult. Therefore, 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 (crop yield). These are called partial measures of productivity.[2]
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.[3]
Agricultural productivity is an important component of food security.[4] Increasing agricultural productivity, especially amongst small holder farms, is an important way to decreasing the amount of land needed for farming and slow environmental degradation through processes like deforestation.[5] Since agriculture has such large impacts on climate change, Project Drawdown described "Sustainable Intensification for Smallholders" an important method for Climate change mitigation.[5]
Sources of agricultural productivity
Some sources of agricultural productivity are:[7]
- Mechanization
- High yield varieties, which were the basis of the Green revolution
- Fertilizers: Primary plant nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium[8][9] and secondary nutrients such as sulfur, zinc, copper, manganese, calcium, magnesium and molybdenum on deficient soil
- Education in management and entrepreneurial techniques to decrease fixed and variable costs and optimise manpower
- Liming of acid soils to raise pH and to provide calcium and magnesium
- Irrigation
- Herbicides
- Genetic engineering
- Pesticides
- Increased plant density
- Animal feed made more digestible by processing
- Keeping animals indoors in cold weather
See: Productivity improving technologies (historical) Section: 2.4.1: Mechanization: Agriculture, Section 2.6: Scientific agriculture.
Importance of agricultural productivity
The productivity of a region's farms is important for many reasons. Aside from providing more food, increasing the productivity of farms affects the region's prospects for growth and competitiveness on the agricultural market, income distribution and savings, and labour migration. An increase in a region's agricultural productivity implies a more efficient distribution of scarce resources. As farmers adopt new techniques and differences, the more productive farmers benefit from an increase in their welfare while farmers who are not productive enough will exit the market to seek success elsewhere.[10]
Agricultural productivity is an important component of food security.[4] Increasing agricultural productivity, especially amongst small holder farms, is an important way to decreasing the amount of land needed for farming and slow environmental degradation through processes like deforestation.[5] Since agriculture has such large impacts on climate change, Project Drawdown described "Sustainable Intensification for Smallholders" an important method for Climate change mitigation.[5]
Some sources of agricultural productivity are:[7]
- Mechanization
- High yield varieties, which were the basis of the Green revolution
- Fertilizers: Primary plant nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium[8][9] and secondary nutrients such as sulfur, zinc, copper, manganese, calcium, magnesium and molybdenum on deficient soil
- Education in management and entrepreneurial techniques to decrease fixed and variable costs and optimise manpower
- Liming of acid soils to raise pH and to provide calcium and magnesium
- Irrigation
- Herbicides
- Genetic engineering
- Pesticides
- Increased plant density
- Animal feed made more digestible by processing
- Keeping animals indoors in cold weather
See: Productivity improving technologies (historical) Section: 2.4.1: Mechanization: Agriculture, Section 2.6: Scientific agriculture.
Importance of agricultural productivity
The productivity of a region's farms is important for many reasons. Aside from providing more food, increasing the productivity of farms affects the region's prospects for growth and competitiveness on the agricultural market, income distribution and savings, and labour migration. An increase in a region's agricultural productivity implies a more efficient distribution of scarce resources. As farmers adopt new techniques and differences, the more productive farmers benefit from an increase in their welfare while farmers who are not productive enough will exit the market to seek success elsewhere.[10]
Importance of agricultural productivity
The productivity of a region's farms is important for many reasons. Aside from providing more food, increasing the productivity of farms affects the region's prospects for growth and competitiveness on the agricultural market, income distribution and savings, and labour migration. An increase in a region's agricultural productivity implies a more efficient distribution of scarce resources. As farmers adopt new techniques and differences, the more productive farmers benefit from an increase in their welfare while farmers who are not productive enough will exit the market to seek success elsewhere.[10]
comparative advantage in agricultural products increases, which means that it can produce these products at a lower opportunity cost than can other regions. Therefore, the region becomes more competitive on the world market, which means that it can attract more consumers since they are able to buy more of the products offered for the same amount of money.
Increases in agricultural productivity lead also to agricultural growth and can help to alleviate poverty in poor and developing countries, where agriculture often employs the greatest portion of the population. As farms become more productive, the wages earned by those who work in agriculture increase. At the same time, food prices decrease and food supplies become more stable. Labourers therefore have more money to spend on food as well as other products. This also leads to agricultural growth. People see that there is a greater opportunity to earn their living by farming and are attracted to agriculture either as owners of farms themselves or as labourers.poverty in poor and developing countries, where agriculture often employs the greatest portion of the population. As farms become more productive, the wages earned by those who work in agriculture increase. At the same time, food prices decrease and food supplies become more stable. Labourers therefore have more money to spend on food as well as other products. This also leads to agricultural growth. People see that there is a greater opportunity to earn their living by farming and are attracted to agriculture either as owners of farms themselves or as labourers.[11]
It is not only the people employed in agriculture who benefit from increases in agricultural productivity. Those employed in other sectors also enjoy lower food prices and a more stable food supply. Their wages may also increase.[11]
Agricultural productivity is becoming increasingly important as the world population continues to grow. India, one of the world's most populous countries, has taken steps in the past decades to increase its land productivity. Forty years ago, North India produced only wheat, but with the advent of the earlier maturing high-yielding wheats and rices, the wheat could be harvested in time to plant rice. This wheat/rice combination is now widely used throughout the Punjab, Agricultural productivity is becoming increasingly important as the world population continues to grow. India, one of the world's most populous countries, has taken steps in the past decades to increase its land productivity. Forty years ago, North India produced only wheat, but with the advent of the earlier maturing high-yielding wheats and rices, the wheat could be harvested in time to plant rice. This wheat/rice combination is now widely used throughout the Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Uttar Pradesh. The wheat yield of three tons and rice yield of two tons combine for five tons of grain per hectare, helping to feed India's 1.1 billion people.[12]
However, critics have argued that increasing agricultural productivity results in increasing human overpopulation problems. According to them, like other species, human populations grow in response to their increased carrying capacity.[13][14][15]
Sustainable agriculture means to maintain or allow increases in agricultural productivity for the long term, by making certain the resources used are as renewable as possible.Sustainable agriculture focuses on meeting the agricultural needs of the present generation while maintaining the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs by conserving the environment.It should ensure the welfare of the ecosystems and still uphold its ability to provide food secure nations. Sustainable agriculture is a measure to achieve SDG2 by meeting the food growing demand consequently, achieving this means reduction to poverty (SDG1).[16]
U.S. agriculture productivity
India, there is an inverse relationship to size of the farm and productivity, contrary to the economy of scale found in all other types of economic activity. It is debated whether the inverse relationship actually exists. Numerous studies falsify this theory.[18] In Zimbabwe, policies on agrarian land reform under president Robert Mugabe especially in and following 2000, split large farms into many smaller farms, this decreased productivity. Marxist agrarian land reform in the Soviet Union, China and Vietnam combined small farms into larger units, this failed to increase productivity.[19]
See also
- Energy efficiency in agriculture
- Food vs. feed
- Green Revolution
- Mechanized agriculture
- Productivity
- Productivity improving technologies (historical) Section 4: Mechanized agriculture, Section 6: Scientific agriculture
- Environmental impact of agriculture
References
- ^ Measuring Agricultural Productivity Using the Average Productivity Index (API) by Lal Mervin Dharmasiri