Agricultural Productivity Growth Research Articles

The role of agricultural insurance in boosting agricultural output: An aggregate analysis from Chinese provinces

AbstractAgricultural insurance is a significant driver of agricultural development worldwide. In this paper, a fixed‐effects panel approach and instrumental variable regressions are used to examine the impact of agricultural insurance on agricultural output in China. The study is based on panel data from 31 Chinese provinces over the period 2004 to 2018. Findings indicate that agricultural insurance led to a significant increase in aggregate agricultural output across provinces. The results remain robust when potential endogeneity in insurance uptake is considered. In addition, mechanism tests were performed to identify the channels through which insurance influences productivity. These show that agricultural insurance contributes to increasing labor productivity and the area of cultivated land per capita and encourages specialized planting, all of which promote growth in agricultural production. Finally, agricultural insurance plays a more important role in Eastern China and nonmajor crop‐producing areas [EconLit Citations: Q13, Q18].

Experience-based food insecurity and agricultural productivity in Nigeria

In this study, we use panel data, three waves (2010–2016), to investigate the impact of agricultural productivity on experience-based measures of food security among Nigerian households. Experience-based measures of food security capture the diversity of diets, food shortage, and other aspects of food security, including psychological and behavioral manifestations of insecure food access. In Nigeria, the agricultural sector contributed about 22.35% to the nation's gross domestic product during 2021. In addition, almost 70% of Nigerians engage in farming for subsistence purposes, with climate change and poor irrigation systems affecting their agricultural productivity. Consistent with previous work linking higher agricultural productivity with better welfare outcomes among Nigerian households, we find that an increase in agricultural productivity increases food security as measured by experience-based indicators. Specifically, a 10% growth in agricultural productivity decreases the likelihood of (i) relying on less preferred foods, (ii) limiting the variety of food eaten, and (iii) limiting portion size at mealtimes by 3.7%, 3.9%, and 1.9%, respectively.

An investigation of the relationship among economic growth, agricultural expansion and chemical pollution in Iran through decoupling index analysis.

Due to the significant role of agricultural chemicals in increasing agricultural production and ensuring food security, the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has been intensified in Iran. These chemical inputs are important environmental pollutants that threaten human health. In the recent years, in agricultural sector, the balance between the growth of agricultural economy and the spread of pollution in Iran has been one of the major challenges. In this regard, the use of decoupling index to decouple the link between agricultural production and pollution caused by the consumption of chemical inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides, has been emphasized; Therefore, in the present study, the decoupling index first is calculated in relation to the emission of pollution caused by the use of chemical inputs in the process of agricultural production during the period of 1991-2016 in Iran. Then, by reviewing the existing literature systematically, the factors affecting the decoupling index in the agricultural sector of Iran are evaluated using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The results showed that in the recent years, pollution indicators in relation to chemical inputs have not had ideal trends, and despite the further growth of agricultural production, the quality of the environment has experienced a declining trend. The results of the decoupling index related to the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in Iran show that during a period of 26-year, only 5 and 4years of using these inputs have had a sustainable state compared to the production growth; besides, a strong negative decoupling state occurred as the most unsustainable state in relation to chemical fertilizer for 7years. Moreover, among the factors affecting the decoupling index, the value-added variable of the agricultural sector has had the most positive effect on this index, and thus, in the long run, it increases the level of pollution in the agricultural sector. The variables of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the area under cereal cultivation in the agricultural sector would also increase the decoupling index. Accordingly, adopting effective strategies to improve resource efficiency, planning for the implementation of biotechnological methods, and doing investment for creating green infrastructure in the agricultural sector can be effective in the ideal decoupling of pollution and agricultural economy growth in Iran.

Impact of agriculture on water quality: a brief review

The rapid growth of Brazilian agricultural production is only possible through the use of agricultural inputs, both mechanical (agricultural machinery and tractors) and chemical (pesticides and fertilizers). Unfortunately, agricultural intensification is accompanied by several potential sources of degradation of aquatic ecosystems. Thus, this work aims to present, in the form of a bibliographic review, the impacts that Brazilian aquatic ecosystems have been suffering in recent years, being extremely important to assist river basin managers in decision-making processes, and producers in the best choice of management, thus preserving the quality of Brazilian waters.

Impact of Government Policies on Research and Development (R&D) Investment, Innovation, and Productivity: Evidence from Pesticide Firms in China

China’s pesticide industry has played an important role in the growth of agricultural productivity in both China and worldwide, but its development is hampered by production inefficiency and the lack of innovation of active ingredients. To improve innovation and the productivity of the pesticide industry, the Chinese government has implemented a series of policies to stimulate private research and development (R&D) and firm innovation. Using the firm-level panel data of the Annual Survey of Industrial Firms (ASIF) collected by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2001–2007, this study examines the linkages between R&D investment, innovation, and productivity with a focus on the role of government policies. The results show that pesticide firms with a higher intensity of R&D investment were associated with a higher patent intensity, and more innovated firms were associated with a higher productivity. Public research, intellectual property enforcement, production subsidy, foreign direct investment (FDI), and being export oriented were positively associated with the innovation and productivity of pesticide firms.

Agricultural trade liberalisation, agricultural total factor productivity growth and food security in Africa

ABSTRACT The study draws inference on the impact of agricultural trade openness, total factor productivity (TFP) growth, and domestic agriculture support on food security in Africa. To retain estimates efficiency and consistency in the presence of complex error terms, we employed the Panel-Corrected-Standard-Error (PCSE) estimator on panel data spanning 2005–2016 for 13 African countries. Results suggest that agricultural trade liberalisation and TFP have significant and favourable effects. Moreover, we find that reducing agricultural support beyond distortion-free levels enhances food security. Further to trade openness, we call for export growth-oriented domestic support anchored on agricultural human-capital development, innovation, and research and development.

Crop price and yield prediction using data science technique

Agriculture is primarily responsible for increasing the state's economic contribution around the world. The most significant agricultural fields, however, remain underdeveloped because of the absence of ecosystem control technology adoption. Crop output is not improving as a result of these issues, which has an impact on the farm economy. As a result, the plant yield prediction helps to support the growth of agricultural productivity. To address this issue, agricultural industries must use machine learning algorithms to forecast crop yield from a given dataset. In order to capture various pieces of information, the supervised machine learning technique must be employed to analyse the dataset. Some examples include variable identification, uni-variate analysis, bi-variate and multi-variate analysis, missing value treatments, and so on. A comparison of machine learning algorithms was performed to see which one was the most accurate at forecasting the most basic crop. The results reveal that the effectiveness of the proposed machine learning algorithm technique is commonly compared to the best accuracy using entropy calculation, precision, recall, F1 Score, sensitivity, and specificity.

A STUDY ON TRANSPOSE OF CROPPING PATTERN AND SINGIFICANT INFLUENCE ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN TAMILNADU

India is a largest country possesses considerable agricultural development. Several areas exhibit various features hence that none of the plan can be conceived for all agricultural divisions around the country. The national income of agriculture is often taken as a barometer of economic development. Agricultural sector in India has marked an admirable performance over the last decades by improving the global market position. With a 52 of 18 percent between 1969-2021, contribution to GDP decreases and the sector provides 55.47 percent of employment opportunities. On the whole GDP growth towards agricultural sector was 6.9% at the national level. Since, several studies on Tamil Nadu concentrated on areas like cropping pattern related to productivity. Thus, the study attempts to reach the shifting pattern of cropping pattern and significant influence on Agricultural Productivity in Tamil Nadu. The study has taken up for five years from 2016-2017 and 2020--2021 and the select crops are restricted with principal crops only. The selected crops are Cotton, Sugarcane, Tea, Coffee and Coconut. Thus, the study concluded that the price of Tea, Sugarcane, Coffee and Cotton has a greater significant impact on Agricultural productivity. Hence, the study suggests that TNAS has to improve agricultural productivity by making intensive integrated farming system, soil health improvement through bio fertilizer and Green Manuring which induce the residual growth in Agricultural production during the study period.

Disentangling the impact of a multiple-component project on SDG dimensions: The case of durum wheat value chain development in Oromia (Ethiopia)

• Smallholder farmer’s participation in agricultural value chains positively affects the achievement of SDG2, SDG4 and SDG16. • Integrated interventions combining multiple components are more effective than stand-alone component interventions (i.e. one component only) in achieving SDGs. • Collective action is key to support smallholder farmer’s agricultural productivity growth and improved food intake. The overall objective of this paper is to assess the impact of a value chain development project – the AVCPO in the Bale region (Oromia, Ethiopia) – on smallholder households focusing on the relationship between the food security goal (SDG2) and other SDG-related outcomes such as education (SDG4) and collective action and social capital (SDG16). Possible co-benefits and synergies among the SDGs are explored using a variety of approaches ranging from instrument variable techniques to evaluate the project overall impact on the various SDGs, multi-valued treatment effect analysis to assess which project component is more effective in achieving the expected impacts, and causal mediation modelling to evaluate to what extent collective action and social capital can play a role in achieving food security and education. Our study shows that the aggregate impact is positive and significant on most of the considered outcomes, namely food security (SDG2) except diet diversification, education (SDG4) of girls but not of boys, and collective action (SDG16), while social capital (SDG16) is significant only as far as horizontal relationships within the community are created. Disentangling the aggregate impact, we show that combined treatments (e.g. training plus storage facilities and marketing through cooperatives) generally return larger impacts than stand-alone treatments (e.g. training only). Finally, our study finds that collective action (SDG16) is an important channel that favors food security improvement (SDG2) but only to a lesser extent better education (SDG4).

CLIMATE CHANGE, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND FOOD SECURITY IN SUDAN

This study investigates the nexus between climate change, agricultural production and food security and food security in Sudan, utilizing time series data over the period 1970 to 2020. The study applies unit root tests with structural breaks and the bounds test cointegration approach. The estimated models show that food security is directly negatively affected by climate change in terms of rainfall, although the effect of rainfall is positive on crop and livestock production. Energy use and GDP growth have positive effect on food security while food prices, exchange rate, food imports and foreign aid have negative effects. CO2 emissions affect food security positively through their positive effect on GDP growth. However, the positive effect of energy use on food security is almost offset by a negative effect of energy use on GDP growth. Meanwhile, a positive effect of agricultural production on GDP growth is found to partially mitigate the negative effect of rainfall and CO2 emissions on food security. Structural breaks accounted for by dummy variables have no effects on food security. In the short run, CO2 emissions and foreign aid affect food security negatively, while food prices and exchange rate have positive effects. On the other hand, food insecurity is found to have negative effects on agricultural production and GDP growth. Collectively these findings indicate the complexity of interactions of climate changes and economic factors as determinants of food security in Sudan. The study concludes that food security is affected by climate change as a long term phenomenon rather than by short run weather fluctuations. Long term economic growth is necessary for food security and should be enhanced, together with policies enhancing agricultural production in face of adverse climate effects. The study argues for transforming foreign aid from humanitarian-crisis focused to planned development projects for adaptation to climate changes including water harvest projects, and for income generating activities in Sudan.

Structural change in Africa: role of agriculture

ABSTRACT This paper argues that rapid agricultural productivity growth is necessary for the expansion of manufacturing employment as a share of total employment. This hypothesis is tested utilizing data from 15 African nations. The estimation technique utilized is dynamic ordinary least squares and represents the first use of this technique to study the hypothesis that agricultural productivity growth is an important factor in the growth of manufacturing employment. The results indicate that agricultural productivity growth is a significant positive factor in the expansion of manufacturing employment. This is important in that productivity growth in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa has until recently been very sluggish. Thus, if manufacturing is to play an important role in this region, then significant investment in raising agricultural productivity needs to occur.

Towards the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger: What Role Do Institutions Play?

Empirical research has aimed to substantiate the institution–food security nexus. However, institutional literature has largely overlooked the relationship between institutions and the sustainable development goal of zero hunger (SDG2). SDG2 is a multidimensional goal that extends beyond food security and requires comprehensive investigation. Therefore, this study explored the role of institutions in promoting SDG2 achievement using a panel dataset spanning 108 countries from 2000 to 2019. The institutional impact was evaluated using worldwide governance indicators, and the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG)’s political risk ratings. Simultaneous equation modeling was used as the estimation technique. According to the results, institutions showed a positive and highly significant association with SDG2 performance. All the dimensions of good governance promoted SDG2 performance. Except for maintaining law and order, all other dimensions of political risk indicators were found to improve SDG2 performance. This study also discovered significant evidence that voice and accountability, as well as the settlement and the prevention of conflicts, had the most substantial influences on SDG2 achievement. In developing countries, improving both the quality of governance and political stability had a comparatively higher impact on SDG2 performance than in developed countries. Furthermore, institutions showed a significant mediating impact on SDG2 performance via agricultural productivity and economic growth. Based on these findings, this study concluded that the pursuit of good governance and inclusive institutions could be instrumental in achieving SDG2.

Policy analysis with Melitz-type gravity model: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

Several governments worldwide aim at fostering agricultural productivity growth by providing investment support. However, the policy’s effect on trade for middle- and low-income countries has not been analyzed so far. This paper analyzes the impact of agricultural policies (credit subsidies and tariffs) on agricultural trade flows by modifying a Melitz-type structural gravity model for a small and open economy. According to the theory, trade flows are expected to increase with credit subsidies and decrease with partners’ applied tariff rates. We analyze bilateral agricultural trade flows between Kyrgyzstan and its 69 trading partners from 2007 to 2018 to test our theoretical findings. Applying the Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood estimator, we find that credit subsidies effectively increase international trade flows while applied tariffs imposed on agricultural products reduce Kyrgyzstan’s export substantially. These results can be applied to similar economies with publicly available data where small budgetary efforts drive trade expansion.

Climate, Environment and Socio-Economic Drivers of Global Agricultural Productivity Growth

Growth in total factor productivity (TFP) indicates the sustainable and/or judicious use of scarce resources, including non-renewables. This paper identifies sources of growth in global agricultural TFP and its finer components, ranging from climate, production environment, and socio-economic factors, using a panel data of 104 countries, covering a 45-year period (1969–2013); and, finally, projects changes in TFP from increased climate variability. The results revealed that global agricultural productivity grew consistently at a rate of 0.44% p.a., driven by technological progress and mix-efficiency change, with negligible contributions from technical- and scale-efficiency changes; albeit with variations across regions. Both long-term and short-term climatic factors and the natural production environment significantly reduce global agricultural productivity, whereas a host of socio-economic factors have a significant but varied influence. The projected increased level of future climate variability will significantly reduce future agricultural productivity. Policy implications include investments in crop diversification, education, agricultural spending, number of researchers, and country specific R&D.

The Role of Banks in Financing the Slovak Agricultural Sector

A well-developed financial system plays an important role in financing individual sectors in the country. In this paper, we analyse credit development in the agricultural sector in the Slovak Republic from various perspectives. We examine the relationship between the agricultural sector's characteristics and the volume of funding at the regional level. The paper's methodology is based on a k-means algorithm for clustering the Slovak regions with four criteria. Then we examine the relationship between financial development and agricultural growth by employing the Cobb-Douglas production function. This study uses annual data covering the period from 2008 to 2019. The results reveal that financial development has a significant and positive effect on agricultural production and agricultural growth.

Participatory farmer research and exploring the phytobiome: Next steps for agricultural productivity growth

Agriculture and food systems must provide nutrition and agricultural products for nearly 10 billion people by 2050. Agriculture is a powerful economic driver, and by prioritizing agricultural productivity and innovation, food systems can become more resilient and improve the wider economy while generating employment. Yet, powerful solutions and approaches are needed that must move beyond “low-hanging fruit” when investing in low-income country agriculture systems. As part of the solution, we discuss innovations such as participatory research models from the International Potato Center (CIP) as well as how to unlock and harness existing plant genetics through the phytobiome.

Sex-disaggregated agricultural extension and weather variability in Africa south of the Sahara

Climate change and extreme weather shocks pose serious threats to a number of agricultural outcomes, including agricultural production, productivity, and income, especially when households depend heavily on this activity. Agricultural extension and rural advisory services are key instruments in promoting technical change, advancing agricultural productivity growth and, ultimately, improving farm livelihoods, and are expected to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and extreme weather shocks. Their mitigation effects, however, may vary depending on the sex of the recipient. This paper investigates the role of sex-disaggregated agricultural extension recipients in contexts where agricultural performance of farm households is affected by weather variability. To this aim, we match multiple rounds of panel microdata from the nationally representative, consumption-based Living Standards Measurement Study -Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), collected in four sub-Saharan African countries, with remote sensing data on biophysical dimensions over a long-term horizon as well as year-specific weather shocks. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a micro-level dataset with individual-level information on agricultural extension services’ recipients has been assembled and examined to investigate the effects of extreme weather shocks and climate change. Applying panel data econometric estimators, the study finds that agricultural extension and advisory services translate into higher agricultural performance of farm households where women are also among the beneficiaries, as compared to non-beneficiaries and households where beneficiaries are men only. Moreover, these services can mitigate the negative effects of weather variability and climate change, controlling for country and time fixed effects as well as holding all other variables constant. These results call for national and international policies and interventions strengthening rural advisory services, especially targeted to women in settings where household livelihoods are predominantly agriculture-based and weather variability and shocks are expected to negatively affect farming activities.

Structural policy priorities in agriculture of Russia

The goal is to analyze the current state of Russian agriculture and the main problems of its further development. Designate indicators and parameters of macroeconomics that must be taken into account when assessing structural changes. Propose an algorithm for the formation of structural policy in Russian agriculture, justify the need and main problems of its implementation. Methods – the work on the article was carried out on the basis of the application of general scientific empirical methods in the framework of comparative, logical and statistical analysis, as well as through the analysis of structure and dynamics, tabular and graphical interpretation of information, etc. Relevance – it is noted that by 2020, the recovery growth in agricultural economy, which began at the turn of the century, has been completed, which made it possible to overcome the decline in production in the 1990s, ensure the country's food independence and create conditions for the transition to export-oriented development. At the same time, the indicators of the country's self-sufficiency in a number of products (milk, vegetables and melons, potatoes, fruits and berries), which were established by the Food Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation, have not been achieved. The share of spending on food in the family consumer budgets remains high. The development of agriculture is highly dependent on the supply of foreign technologies, machinery and equipment, seeds and breeding material, which creates risks for food security. The growth of agricultural production has little effect on the solution of social problems of the countryside. The intensification of agricultural production leads to the aggravation of environmental problems. Results – in the framework of this article, the directions of structural policy in Russian agriculture are considered, according to which the strategic documents of industry development are being adjusted. The author also considers the main directions of agricultural and rural policy aimed to solve these problems: stimulating investment in the industry; improvement of scientific and technical support for agriculture; measures to reduce price volatility in agri-food market; overcoming the departmental approach to rural development and diversifying the rural economy; measures to improve soil fertility and ecological situation in agriculture. Conclusions – the areas of improvement of agricultural policy which are considered in the framework of the article, the work on which is actively being carried out today by AIC management bodies, will play an important role in the development of agro-industrial complex of Russia. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure compliance between the tasks set for AIC to achieve the country's food security, increasing export potential of domestic agri-food products, sustainable development of rural areas and envisaged measures, as well as financial resources which are allocated for the development.

Social reconstruction of the village as the basis of agricultural strategy of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The goal is to assess the current situation of social development of the village, identify the main factors hindering the revival of rural areas, reduction of the number of rural population, especially young people, and migration from the village to the city. Determination of the measures aimed to ensure employment, infrastructure development, favorable conditions for improving the living standards of rural residents. Methods – analytical, economic-statistical, monographic, calculation-constructive. Results – analysis of the current state of social development of the village was carried out, during which disproportions in the age structure of the rural population of the republic, trends in reduction of the number of young people and increasing the number of the retired people, changes in the number of rural settlements that have the necessary potential to create a comfortable living environment for the population and trends in the subsequent abolition of villages have been revealed. Conclusions – the problems of population migration from rural areas to the cities, the lack of jobs that force people to work outside their place of residence, low incomes of rural residents, the outflow of young people from villages to the cities justify the need to develop comprehensive measures for rural development, including improvement of living conditions through the development of housing, communal and social infrastructure, expanding the scope of activities in the countryside through the development of not only agricultural sector, but also service sector, construction, storage systems, primary processing of agricultural products, agritourism, crafts. The complexity of solving the problems of rural areas will contribute to the revival of the village, the stable growth of agricultural production and other sectors of economy of rural areas.

Decomposition of Green Agricultural Productivity Gain Under a Multiple-Frontier Framework

This paper investigates structural variation of agricultural productivity growth in China using a multiple-frontier approach. Agricultural productivity gain in Sichuan province is decomposed into technological progress, technical, mix and scale efficiency changes in terms of economic and environmental performance. The results show that agricultural Luenberger productivity indicator in Sichuan presents a significant increase trend with annual growth rate of 2.5% over the period of 1997-2017. The agricultural green growth in Sichuan is most driven by technological progress. Of the decline in the OI changes, over 90% results from the decline of environmental inefficiency. The technological progress is the main driven force of the economic growth while the TEC (technical inefficiency) incumbers its growth. The structural effects (mix and scale components) incumber environmental growth. The results imply that policymakers should pay more attention to new agricultural technological development and resource misallocation to improve agricultural green growth in Sichuan.