MEASURING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN DEVELOPING EIGHT

Abstract

In this paper the agricultural productivity growth in Developing Eight (D-8) from 1993 - 2007 is examined using the data envelopment analysis (DEA). The study focuses on growth in total factor productivity and its decomposition in to technical and efficiency change components. It was found that, during that period, total factor productivity has experienced a positive evolution in D-8. Decomposition of TFP shows that technical change is the main source of this growth. The study also describes that technical efficiency change has been the main constraint of achievement of high levels of total factor productivity. Also, findings in pure and scale efficiency change show that, the cause of the low efficiency is that, these countries have not succeeded well in expanding of agriculture sector of their economy. Finally it was found that, all D-8 countries improved technology more than efficiency in the reference period.