Accelerating Agricultural Productivity to Enhance Economic Growth in Botswana

Maize is the most extensive crop grown in Mexico. It is estimated that 3 million farmers cultivate maize, 67 percent is grown on small farms mainly for self-consumption, 23 percent on medium-sized farms and only 10 percent on commercial farms. Thus, the study sought to examine the contributions of agriculture to rural development in Mexico. The study was literature-based and the findings were based on the findings from the previous studies. The study results show that agriculture is one of the critical factors that increase the economic development of a country. In most developing countries, agriculture is considered a back born for development. It was noted that in some the countries such as Mexico, agriculture contributes more than 13% to the GDP. The study noted that maize farming is one most practiced in Mexico. Concentrating and putting more effort into agriculture and rural development is necessary for making it possible for growing nations to tackle the essential concerns of food security, reducing poverty and economic growth. The study discovered that the increasing agricultural surplus triggered by improvement in agricultural production and productivity tends to boost social welfare, especially in rural areas. The study concluded that farming and particularly maize farming increases productivity. In addition, the study concluded that agriculture is a reliable driver for development and an essential basis for prosperous income for the majority of nations that depend on agriculture.  Consequently, the study recommended that more efforts need to be put into farming. The government needs to increase subsidies to the farmers. The farmers need to be trained on the most effective inputs to be used during the farming. Proper measures are required to strengthen agriculture and attain greater development. The government and policymakers ought to start a diversity and increase appropriation in terms of budgeting for the farming sector. Also, there is a need to guarantee rural farmers a ready market for their agricultural products to avoid wastage and encourage them to do more in the agricultural sector. Keywords: Agriculture, rural development, Mexico

Substantial progress has been made globally in addressing the extreme forms of hunger as a result of improvements in agricultural productivity and food production. The share of undernourished people declined from nearly one-quarter of the global population in 1970 to around 11% of the global population in 2014–16.

The agro-fundamentalists consider agriculture as the engine of growth while agro-pessimists argue that economic growth causes agricultural productivity. It is the main engine of growth in agriculture-based countries; less important in transforming economies; and plays the same role as other tradable sectors in urbanized countries (World Bank, 2008). This work revisits agriculture’s role in the development process within the experience of Asia where the majority of the population heavily depends on agriculture. Chapter 2 presents the results of causality tests between agriculture and economic growth in bivariate systems using the TYDL methodology. For some of agriculture-based Asia (Bhutan, Lao, Cambodia and Pakistan), there is evidence to support the agro-fundamentalists view. Mongolia’s economic growth drives agricultural growth. There is no causality running from either direction for Nepal, Vietnam and Bangladesh. No causal relationship between agriculture and economic growth is evident in the transforming economies of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. Indian and Chinese agriculture contribute to economic growth while the Malaysian economy shows evidence of bidirectional causality. Chapter 3 investigates the impact of agriculture on economic development in the context of an open economy, as measured by the accession to WTO and Trade Freedom Index, by employing an OLS method. The theory predicts that the openness of economies negatively affects the gains in the economic growth from improvement in agricultural productivity. However, this effect is not strong enough to cause a long-run negative relationship between economic growth and agricultural productivity. Further, the effect does not bring large differences in the gains from agricultural productivity between the open and closed economies in most of Asia. Chapter 4 examines the role of agriculture in the Korean economy as it transitioned from a predominantly agricultural to an urbanized economy by employing a VARX method. The impact of agriculture is significantly different between the transforming and urbanized stage with the former producing a greater impact. The effect of agriculture is also dependent on the country’s stages of economic growth, i.e., Korean agriculture contributes to economic growth in transforming Korea, but not in an agriculture-based and urbanized economy.

Agriculture, despite the relative stabilization of recent years, is still the weakest link in the Georgian economy. This is evidenced by the country's low level of self-sufficiency in many types of agricultural products (for wheat - 22%, for corn – 74%, for vegetables – 61%, for meat - 51%) and its high dependence on imports. In the first 9 months of 2022 alone, the negative balance in foreign trade in agricultural and food products amounted to 385.8 million US dollars, which negatively affects both the macroeconomic state of the economy and the country's exchange rate. Due to the rise in prices for oil products on the world market, Georgia had to pay USD 440 million more in January-September 2022 compared to the corresponding period last year, of which only less than 1/5 was due to economic growth, and the rest “was a merit” of the rise in oil prices. The uncultivated land area remains too large (up to 60%), which, along with other reasons, is due to the rise in the cost of material resources for the production of agricultural products (mineral fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery, fuel). Due to the virtual lack of domestically produced non-ferrous products, the government can only regulate the price of fuel for farmers through the regulation of taxes (excise, VAT). Many countries follow the practice of returning part or all of the cost of fuel to farmers involved in the implementation of government programs or orders. In some countries, the state fully (Sweden) or partially (USA, Germany, etc.) covers the cost of fuel used for agricultural work. In our opinion, it is most acceptable for Georgia to subsidize diesel fuel purchased for agricultural work by manipulating indirect taxes (excise, VAT), for which it is necessary to develop a transparent mechanism for its use. An appropriate law should be adopted by the Parliament of Georgia. Appropriate subsidies should be extended exclusively to farmers involved in the relevant state programs (orders), as well as to the production associations created by them - cooperatives. The excise tax on 1 kg of fuel in Georgia is currently 44 tetri, and on one liter of fuel, respectively, 36.7 tetri. At the same time, if the amount of excise tax per liter of fuel is a constant value, VAT, on the contrary, is a variable value and in each specific case an individual calculation is required. We consider it lawful that the subsidization was at least 1.50 lari per liter of diesel fuel. At prices for October 2022, one liter of diesel fuel costs 4.10 GEL. To cultivate 5 hectares of arable land, a farmer needs approximately 100 liters of fuel, i.e. fuel worth 410 GEL. By subsidizing 1 liter of fuel in the amount of 1.50 GEL, the farmer can save 150 GEL, buying 100 liters of fuel will cost only 260 GEL (= 410-150), i.e. more than 1/3. It seems that in order to reduce the cost of agricultural work, the same work should be carried out in other areas (plowing, milling, sowing ...), which are currently estimated at 1,200 lari per hectare of agricultural land. It seems that in the future the same attitude should be shown in relation not only to fuel, but also to all other types of means of production. For this, the starting point should be the average index of prices for agricultural products for one harvest year, and in this way the average index of price growth for the corresponding means of production is calculated. Both indices should be approved as the basis of price parity between agricultural products and the means for its production (the parity will show how much industrial output or services an agricultural commodity producer can receive per unit of output he produces). Thus, if the increase in prices for agricultural products is 5%, and for inputs for agricultural production - 10%, the difference between them - 5% (= 10% -5%) should be covered by the budget. Price parity should be established for such strategic products as marketable grain, meat, milk, fruits, citrus fruits and some others. Which provide the country's food security and the processing industry with raw materials. The adoption of the law "On the establishment and protection of price parity for goods and services necessary for the reproduction of agricultural products" will contribute to the growth of agricultural products and deepen the production specialization of agriculture, increase the efficiency of the agricultural sector, increase its share in the national economy, motivate life and work in the countryside , reduce the migration of people from rural areas to cities or abroad and, last but not least, reduce the current high dependence on imports in the food supply of the population of Georgia.

In this paper, we study the transformation process Indian agriculture exhibited in the recent past, studying its policy implications. Between the years 2005-06 and 2015-16, more than 52 million workers left agriculture, which did not have any effect on agricultural output due to productivity improvements. We estimate the contribution of productivity growth and structural change in agriculture to national productivity growth during 1981-2016. We estimate differentials in agricultural productivity and in their ability to contribute to the structural change process for 21 major states of India. Using revised employment estimates, we trace major changes during the pre-reforms (before 1991) and post-reforms periods. Results show that in the pre-reforms period, the impact of productivity improvements in agriculture on agricultural output was equated by the new workforce entering into this sector, leading to a stagnant labor productivity trend. The labor-shift from agriculture during the early years of the post-reforms period, which increased further in the next decade, has led to a consistent rise in agricultural productivity. In the absence of reforms and the associated labor shift, the productivity growth in Indian agriculture would have been much lower. A similar labor shift during the last decade has not affected agricultural output, which has risen more rapidly. This result holds true for almost all states studied. There exists a positive relation between labor-shift and agricultural output in a cluster of states. Decomposition results indicate ‘within-sector’ productivity growth is the major source of overall growth, with a rising contribution of ‘structural change’. Studying the sources of growth across states offers new scope to achieve inter-sectoral productivity convergence.

The paper examines the effects of agricultural productivity and other economic factors on life expectancy in Nigeria. The ARDL approach to cointegration and error correction modelling is employed for analysis of annual time series data spanning the period from1981-2016. The study finds that improvement in agricultural productivity enhances life expectancy in the short in, but adversely affects it in the long run. It also finds that inflation and unemployment adversely affect life expectancy in the short- and long-run. The short-run effect of real per capita income is found to be negative (an indication of uneven distribution of income), while the long run effect is also negative, but statistically not significant. The effects of exchange rate and government recurrent education-expenditure on life expectancy are neither significant in the short- nor in the long-run. Health expenditure positively affects life expectancy in the short run and in the long run. Based on these findings, the study recommends that though agricultural productivity enhances life expectancy in the short run in Nigeria, yet it should be cautiously pursued in a way that it is not detrimental to the industrial (especially, manufacturing) sector as this could have adverse consequences for life expectancy in the long run. There is also need to raise awareness campaigns on proper nutrition to control intake of high calorie and high cholesterol foods as a result of expansion in food production arising from improvement in agricultural productivity. Efforts should also be made by the government to address the unemployment problem and bring inflation under control. In addition, there is need for government to increase budgetary allocation to the health sector.

The World Food Summit, Rome, in 1996 estimated the undernourished population at almost 800 million. In Mexico, the highest level of undernourishment among children (27%) is recorded in the state of Yucatan. Improvements in agricultural production were carried out in a traditional Mayan farming village in the poorest area of Yucatan. Milpa crops including maize, beans, and squash yields were improved by the use of fertilizers, mulching, and herbicides while keeping the local species as cover crops. Innovations double the yields and the benefit/cost ratios. Also, improvement in chicken production was effected via construction of chicken pens and use of vaccines, which increased the benefits/cost ratio from 0.8 to about 1.3. Other innovations included production of honeybee, as well as citrus orchards and vegetables. The health status of the youths was measured in 1996 (when the project began) and again in 2000. After 4 years, improvements in production, productivity, and access to subsidies and loans had an immediate effect on both the household level of investment and the health status of children. Children who were measured in 2000 are taller than their counterparts in 1996, but the differences were not statistically significant. However, their nutritional status improved significantly in terms of body mass index (BMI) in both sexes and in all three age groups (3, 7, and 11 years) studied. The results obtained suggest that traditional, diversified farms, if properly improved, can provide the basic food requirements for the farmers' families and increase their cash income.

Agricultural labor productivity in the Lower South, 1720–1800

Agricultural industry agglomeration refers to the farmers whose business focus on certain agricultural products, and organic agglomeration of enterprises in spatial geography, forming a professional and large-scale market organization network. At present, there are few researches to discuss the influence of agricultural industry agglomeration on agricultural labor productivity. Based on the panel data of 275 cities in China from 1999 to 2013, this paper examines the effect of agricultural industry agglomeration on agricultural labor productivity and its mechanism. The research findings are: （1） China’s agricultural industry agglomeration can significantly improve agricultural labor productivity. The increase of agricultural industry agglomeration degree and the difference of agricultural industry agglomeration degree in different regions explain the “rapidity” and “heterogeneity” of agricultural labor productivity improvement respectively. （2） Agricultural industry agglomeration promotes the improvement of agricultural labor productivity through the transmission mechanism of the internal scale economy at the household level, the localization economy at the industrial level and the increasing returns to scale brought by the urbanized economy at the city level. （3） The effect of agricultural industry agglomeration on agricultural labor productivity is greater than that of non-agricultural cities; the effect of agricultural industry agglomeration on agricultural labor productivity in southern cities is greater than that in northern cities. This paper provides a possible way to solve the challenges faced by Chinese agriculture.

This paper examines the empirical linkage between stock market development and sustainable economic growth in Botswana. The paper employs AutoRegression Distributed lags (ARDL)-bounds testing approach and multi-dimensional stock market development proxies to examine this relationship. The paper finds that in the long run, stock market development has a minimal and negative impact on economic growth in Botswana. However, stock market development, especially, market capitalisation development has some short-term impact on economic growth. The paper, however, failed to any impact of stock value traded and the stock value turnover on economic growth. This finding supports the numerous past studies, which have reported negative or inconclusive results on the effects of stock market development on economic growth. The paper, therefore, concludes that there is the need for increasing financial deepening and the reform and diversification of the ownership structure of the capital markets by providing further public and institutional education on the value of stock markets for economic development

Pakistan’s agricultural sector growth is dwindling from the last several years due to insufficient foreign direct investment (FDI) and a drastic climate change-induced raise in temperature, which are severely affecting agricultural production. The FDI has paramount importance for the economy of developing countries as well as the improvement of agricultural production. Based on the time series data from 1984 to 2017, this paper aims to highlight the present situation of the agriculture sector of Pakistan and empirically analyze the short-run and long-run impact of Chinese foreign direct investment (CFDI), climate change, and CO2 emissions on agricultural productivity and causality among the variables. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) model and Granger Causality test were employed to find out the long-run, short-run, and causal relationships among the variables of interest. Furthermore, we have employed the Error Correction Model (ECM) to know the convergence of the equilibrium path. The bound test results verified the existence of a long-run association, and the empirical findings confirmed that Chinese FDI has a significant and positive impact, while climate change and CO2 emissions has negative impact on the agricultural growth of Pakistan both in the short-run and long-run. Granger Causality test results revealed that variables of interest exhibit bi-directional and uni-directional causality. The sector-wise flow of FDI reveals that the agriculture sector of Pakistan has comparatively received a less amount of FDI than other sectors of the economy. Based on the findings, it was suggested to the Government of Pakistan and policymakers to induce more FDI in the agriculture sector. Such policies would be helpful for the progress of the agriculture sector as well as for the economic growth of Pakistan.

In this paper, we examine the causality between financial development and sustainable growth in Botswana using the newly developed ARDL-bounds testing approach. Our results show that the causal relationship between financial development and sustainable economic growth is sensitive to the proxy used for measuring financial development. When the domestic credit to the private sector (DCP/GDP) is used as a proxy for financial development, a finance-led growth is found to prevail. However, when the ratio of broad money to GDP (M2/GDP) and the ratio of the bank deposits to GDP (BD/GDP) are used, a distinct growth-led finance seems to prevail. This finding shows that the relationship between financial development and economic growth in Botswana is not unambiguous, and that both the real sector and the financial sector of the economy should be developed simultaneously, in order to promote the overall development of the economy. This applies irrespective of whether the causal relationship is estimated in the short run or in the long run.

There are few studies in Botswana which have examined the relationship between agriculture and economic growth. The uniqueness of this study is grounded in investigating disintegrated agriculture components into crop production and livestock production and investigating their nexus with economic growth. This study estimated the short and long term effects between crop production, livestock production and economic growth in Botswana for the period 1990 to 2017. The Auto-Regressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) bounds testing approach was employed to investigate the stated relationship. Study findings from the ARDL bound testing approach confirm evidence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between crop production, livestock production and economic growth. Results indicated that livestock production has a positive and significant impact on economic growth both in the short run and long run. On the other hand crop production has a positive and significant impact on economic growth only in the long run. Efforts towards supporting agricultural sector growth should be emphasized to promote agricultural sector productivity in a bid to forge a move away from dependence on imports of food in Botswana. To enhance economic growth, in both the short run and long run, the government of Botswana and all relevant stakeholders should invest in and promote livestock production. In the long term, policies that foster crop production are essential for economic growth.

Based on the Peking University Digital Financial Inclusion Index and 2011–2018 provincial panel data, this paper discusses the mechanism of digital financial inclusion on agricultural green total factor productivity from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The result shows that digital financial inclusion can significantly increase China’s agricultural green total factor productivity, and the optimization of the agricultural industry structure can bring a significant “structural growth effect”. A total of 8.42% of the positive effects of digital financial inclusion on agricultural green total factor productivity are realized through the intermediary effect of agricultural industrial structure optimization. Through further research, it is found that digital financial inclusion has regional heterogeneity in the improvement of agricultural green total factor productivity. At the same time, digital financial inclusion of different dimensions will also have a differential impact on the improvement of agricultural green total factor productivity. In order to promote the green development of agriculture, it is necessary to further improve the financial development environment, optimize the structure of the agricultural industry, and formulate development policies for digital inclusive finance in accordance with local conditions.

Large scale agricultural business entities (hereinafter referred to as “the large scale entities”) are newly sprouted in the process of China’s agricultural transformation from traditional production to modern mode, while the improvement of agricultural total factor productivity is an important driving force to realize agricultural transformation in China. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore whether the former has a promoting effect on the latter. First of all, the effective improvement of agricultural total factor productivity by the large scale entity development is analyzed from the two aspects of scale effect and technology utilization effect, and the effect mechanism is discussed in depth in this paper. Secondly, empirical test was carried out by using the panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2015 to 2020. The benchmark regression results show that the development of large scale entities can significantly improve agricultural total factor productivity. The mechanism test results indicate that the development of large scale entities improves the agricultural total factor productivity by raising the agricultural mechanization level. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the difference between large scale entities would affect the benchmarking results. Therefore, it is believed through the study as discussed in this paper that devoting greater effort to support the development of large scale entities is an important measure to improve agricultural total factor productivity and promote China’s agricultural transformation, but it is necessary to act according to local conditions based on the difference of entity types in the process.