Technical Change In Agriculture Research Articles

Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture

Household-level panel data from a nationally representative sample of rural Indian households describing the adoption and profitability of high-yielding seed varieties (HYVs) associated with the Green Revolution are used to test the implications of a model incorporating learning by doing and learning spillovers. The estimates indicate that (i) imperfect knowledge about the management of the new seeds was a significant barrier to adoption; (ii) this barrier diminished as farmer experience with the new technologies increased; (iii) own experience and neighbors' experience with HYVs significantly increased HYV profitability; and (iv) farmers do not fully incorporate the village returns to learning in making adoption decisions.

Reversal of Fortune: Immiserizing Technical Change in Agriculture

AbstractSeveral recent studies have reported the possibility of immiserizing technical change in agriculture. In these studies, the interaction of government commodity policy and technical change has been shown potentially to lead to a loss of national welfare, a negative rate of return to research. The purpose of this paper is to tie these recent results to the earlier results of Bhagwati and Johnson on immiserizing growth (technical change), and to offer a more general condition for describing the impacts of distortions on the benefits from technical change.

Induced innovation in American agriculture: A re‐examination using cointegration analysis

Abstract The induced innovation hypothesis of Hayami & Ruttan (1971, 1985) Agricultural Development: An International Perspective (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins) provides the focus for many subsequent studies of technical change in agriculture. Using inter alia US data, they provide convincing support for their hypothesis. We reconsider Hayami & Ruttan's econometric equations using cointegration analysis. Our results lend only limited support to Hayami & Ruttan's hypothesis and indicate a revised hypothesis whereby the rate of change in relative factor use is determined by relative factor prices.

Technical Change in Agriculture and Land Degradation in Developing Countries: A General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper analyzes the role of economic linkages between upland agriculture, lowland agriculture and other sectors in developing economies, and the potential for welfare-enhancing shifts from more to less erosive upland land use patterns. Comparative statics results are obtained from analytical and numerical general equilibrium models. They indicate that the green revolution in lowland agriculture helped alleviate upland land degradation, and that policies aimed at slowing land degradation through technical progress in upland crops may have the opposite of their intended effects. The results highlight the need for integrated policy packages to reduce upland land degradation in developing countries.

Explaining the Relative Decline of Agriculture: A Supply-Side Analysis for Indonesia

The relative decline of agriculture in growing economies is a central feature of economic development and a major influence on agricultural policies. The literature on the causes of this decline has focused on the relative price effects arising from demand factors, especially Engel's law, rather than on supply-side influences, such as changes in relative factor endowments and differential rates of technical change. This article develops a simple structural model of the transformation of the Indonesian economy, applying an error correction mechanism to capture the dynamics resulting from disequilibria and the costs of adjustment. The decline in agriculture's share of gross domestic product is found to be caused much less by the relative price effects typically emphasized in the literature than by capital accumulation and rapid technical change in agriculture.

Technical change, productivity, and sustainability in irrigated cropping systems of South Asia: Emerging issues in the post‐green revolution Era

AbstractRecent trends in the productivity of South Asia's irrigated cropping systems are reviewed with emphasis on the large, densely populated Indo‐Gangetic plains of Pakistan and India and parts of Bangladesh, where wheat is an important crop. Technical and institutional problems emerging in these areas may seriously impinge on the ability to maintain the gains in food‐grain productivity and sustain the resource base in the next two decades. Future productivity increases in South Asian cropping systems depend on a new strategy that implies profound changes in agricultural research priorities and in the institutions that foster technical change in agriculture.

Environment‐Specific Rates and Biases of Technical Change in Agriculture

AbstractIn developing countries, growth rates of agricultural technology exhibit wide variation across environments because of heterogeneity of land quality. Technical change analyses employing aggregate data typically capture this information very imperfectly, because observation units rarely coincide with areas of environmental uniformity. The author presents a model permitting environment‐specific variation in the rate and factor bias of technical change when information on environmental qualities is limited. An application using Philippine data reveals substantial discrepancies between stylized irrigated and nonirrigated areas in the rate and biases of technical change. Implications of these differences for employment growth and income distribution are analyzed.

Whose Price Wins: Institutional and Technical Change in Agriculture

The concern for environmental quality has become an increasingly dominant force for institutional and technical change in agriculture. More recently, surfaceand ground-water pollution from agriculture have generated public debate over the economic potential of alternative production systems and the structure of farm policies. However, the ability to alleviate environmental problems through technical change is predicated upon prices and institutions in agriculture, such as farm programs. Farm producers have little incentive to adopt new, more environmentally sound production systems if existing prices and institutions remain unchanged. They are more likely to adopt such technologies if institutions and prices adjust to reflect the concerns of environmental and consumer groups. In effect, whose wins in the struggle over environmental quality will influence the future direction of technical change in agriculture. Environmental regulation has been traditionally looser in agriculture than in other sectors of the economy (Leman and Paarlberg 1988, 50). Thus, the farm sector's price for environmental resources has prevailed, and farmers have had to worry little about internalizing the effects of their chemicals and soil erosion on ground and surface water stocks.' Low or zero shadow prices of off-site water sources have translated into low prices of other agricultural inputs that are linked to water pollution. As Antle and Capalbo (1988) conclude, agricultural and environmental policies have helped push U.S. farmers to adopt technologies that use chemicals and capital intensively. Partly because of water pollution from agriculture, over $16 million in federal and state funds have been allocated to 78 projects under the USDA's Low-Input Sustainable Agriculture (LISA) program (USDA/ CSRS 1990).2 This program is designed specifically to develop technologies that reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture production. However, as Ekey and Crosson (1988) found, currently available alternative farming systems are less profitable tha conventional methods given current prices and government policies. In the absence of and farm program changes, new innovations developed under he LISA program will probably face similar obstacles. Increasing public concern over water quality has sparked a new, perhaps stronger, conflict over whose will govern water use. Bromley (1988) and Howe (1980) suggest that the conflicting interests between those well served by existing institutions (the farm sector) and those bearing unwanted costs (the public, as represented by environmental and consumer groups) are important theoretical and policy issues. Since conflict is created and mitigated by existing and new technologies and

Technical change and intra‐household welfare: A case study of irrigated rice production in south Sulawesi, Indonesia

In this article the effect of an agricultural technical change on intra‐household welfare is discussed. Existing theories of the household suggest that the distribution of resources within the household is a function of household members’ employment. The differences in male and female employment levels under rainfed and irrigated rice production are investigated in a case study of two villages in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is concluded that the pattern of labour allocation in the irrigated area involves higher absolute labour requirements for both men and women, compared to the rainfed area, but that women's agricultural labour relative to men's is lower. Furthermore, women's participation in the cash economy is, relative to men's, lower in the irrigated than in the rainfed area. It is argued that these differences can be seen as a response to the different agricultural production technologies being used. This suggests that the levels of inequality within the household are greater in the irrigated than...

The determinants of moneylender interest rates: Evidence from rural India

This study examines the determinants of moneylender interest rates in rural India in the context of two major developments of the 1960s: (a) the incidence of agricultural technical change in the process popularly denoted by the term ‘Green Revolution’ and (b) the spread of government‐sponsored subsidised credit through rural banks and co‐operative credit agencies. It finds that farmers residing in areas characterised by the use of Green Revolution technology face lower moneylender interest rates. It also finds evidence of the reduction of moneylender monopoly power as a result of increased competition from formal lending agencies. It concludes that informal rural credit markets are sensitive mechanisms which respond to environmental as well as borrower characteristics.

Induced Bias of Technical Change in Agriculture: The United States and Japan, 1880-1980

Because of extreme differences in factor endowments and price ratios among factors between the United States and Japan, both countries have experienced sharply different patterns of factor use and productivity growth in agriculture for the past 100 years of modern economic growth. In this study, the method of testing the Hicksian hypothesis of induced innovation was developed using the two-level CES production function. The model was applied to the historical data of U.S. and Japanese agricultural development for 1880-1980. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that different patterns of technical change in the two countries were induced by differences in the levels and the movements in relative factor prices.

Econometric Evaluation of New Technology with an Application to Integrated Pest Management: Discussion

To analyze technical change in agriculture, economists have had to select from a limited menu of research approaches. The first course or approach, introduced by Griliches, is to treat technical change as the adoption of a particular improved input, such as a crop variety or piece of equipment. Diffusion of the innovation among profit-maximizing firms is modeled as a contagious, stochastic process with a resulting S-shaped curve time. This is primarily a micro model, but often it is applied to secondary data. The second major approach is to examine factor-augmenting technical change by means of production functions or, more recently, with dual cost functions (Binswanger). In these more aggregate models, technical change is merely represented by a time trend variable. There are three other entrees on the research menu: (a) treatment of joint adoption of improved inputs by simultaneous equation models such as adoption of high-yielding grains and fertilizer, (b) explicit inclusion of both price and yield risk with the diversification offered by technology mixes, and (c) models incorporating fixed factors to depict the adjustment cost of adoption. The two studies offered to us today are likely to expand the research menu. The Hall and Duncan (HD) study extends and continues the work of labor economists by applying a qualitative choice model to pest consultant hiring decisions. Zilberman offers a tasty dish that has a novel blend of micro realism and input market rigor. The topping is the potential for aggregating the micro decisions to evaluate the effects of government commodity policies on natural resource utilization. His effective-water could be effective pesticides or any other scarce resource. I will direct my comments to the HD paper. The primary foods-for-thought that HD serve (in about 100 equations) are alternatives to Heckman's self-selection bias model. HD's estimator corrects for both self-selection and sample-proportion bias. Incidently, there have been several modifications offered to the Heckman model, yet its use seems to be widespread because it is easily understood and can be modified to the special problems at hand. Both the self-selection and choice-based biases can occur frequently; the latter problem is often encountered because it usually is less expensive to use observable choices as a basis for sampling. The analysis of the discrete technology choices of individual farmers several years with better econometric models is a research area that is underexploited. HD are to be commended for extending the work of Rodriquez and Burrows, who apply Heckman's model to pest management choices. Unfortunately, the HD study is warmed over in the sense that it uses the IPM choices of about fifty California farmers that have been used for five or six other studies. The data are decisions made in the early 1970s, but now there are new technologies, new pest species in the area, and different relative prices. The ideal farmer adoption sample would be different from that used in the HD study. There is a need for observations on many farmers choosing for several years among the newest technical developments. Multiple years and locations are needed to give variation in relative prices, pest levels, and weather conditions. Fixed factors such as soil fertility and managerial ability should be collected as well as prices of variable inputs, product prices, yields, and any direct adoption costs. Such a survey compiled for several years is very expensive to collect; one can see why good data are reheated.

PERSPECTIVES ON ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

While the role of technical change in agriculture is seen differently by protagonists of different theories of development, the processes of technology generation and uptake are widely seen as progressive. In this vein, agricultural technology assessment is seen as contributing to research policy and management and also to the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of broader rural development policies and programs. A need for both farm‐level and aggregate‐level assessments is identified, and methods applied at each level are reviewed. At the farm level, some insights are provided by the farming systems research approach leading to recognition of a changed role for economists in farm‐level impact assessment. At the aggregate level, the problems of tracing out all the important consequences of a technical innovation can be severe. Analysts will generally need to account for general equilibrium effects, distorted prices and welfare considerations, as well as the dynamic interaction between technology and institutions. In the light of the discussion, an agenda of unfinished business for agricultural economists is suggested.

A Graphic Model of the Effects of Sectoral Technical Change: The Case of Japan, 1880–1970

This paper estimates the effects of technical change on sectoral output growth and resource transfers in Japan over the period 1880–1970. It provides a graphic model to explain the process by which agricultural resources are pushed and pulled to the non‐agricultural sector by agricultural and non‐agricultural technical change.Cet article évalue les effets des changements techniques dans l'accroissement de la production par secteurs et les transferts de ressources au Japon pendant la periode 1880–1970. Ilfournit une representation graphique afin d'expliquer le processus selon lequel les ressources agricoles sont poussées et tirees vers le secteur non‐agricole par des changemenls techniques à la fois dans le domaine agricole et non‐agricole.SummaryThis paper combined growth accounting with a two‐sector model to measure the effects of agricultural and non‐agricultural technical change on sectoral resource use and output growth in Japan over the period 1880–1970. The growth accounting results of the model can be summarized as follows. Regarding agricultural output growth in Japan, the contribution of agricultural technical change ranged from a high of 91 percent in the first decade studied (1880–90) to a low of 73 percent in the third decade studied (1900–10). These estimates are less than those of conventional growth accounting. The contribution of non‐agricultural technical change, although small, was negative, given that it draws resources from the agricultural to the non‐agricultural sector.Regarding non‐agricultural output growth, the contribution of non‐agricultural technical change ranged from ‐13 percent (1910–20) to 56 percent (1890–1900). These estimates are higher than those of conventional growth accounting. The contribution of agricultural technology was small, but unlike the contribution of non‐agricultural technical change to agricultural output growth, it was positive, given that it pushes resources from the agricultural to the non‐agricultural sector.A graphic version of the two‐sector growth accounting model was provided to explain the process by which sectoral technical change affects demand factors and causes intersectoral resource flows. Agricultural technical change increased demand and output in the non‐agricultural sector while non‐agricultural technical change decreased demand and output in the agricultural sector. This asymmetry in the cross‐effects of agricultural and non‐agricultural technical change arose from the relatively low price and income elasticities for agricultural products. The result was a shift in labor and capital from the agricultural to non‐agricultural sector. Finally, some policy implications suggested by the results were noted.

The demands for funds by agricultural households: Evidence from rural India

This study presents estimates of borrowing functions based on rural household data for India. It improves upon existing work in three key areas. First, it is shown that existing studies have used an inappropriate definition of the demand for funds, which when rectified produces quite different results. Second, the interaction between agricultural technical change and the rural finance market is examined and it is shown that farmers in a position to benefit from technical change tend both to borrow more and to face lower interest rates. Third, it is shown that farm specific interest rates, when introduced endogenously, are quite sensitive to personal and locational characteristics and are significant determinants of borrowing.

Modernization of Agriculture: A Comment; Fred Magdoff Replies

In his discussion of Pros and Cons of Agricultural Mechanization in the Third World (MR, May 1982), Fred Magdoff did not consider the significant implications of agricultural modernization for public health and occupational health. The health effects of technical change in agriculture can be quite substantial. Several observers have recently reported serious hazards from unguarded harvesting equipment used in Cuban sugar plantations. Cases of debilitating injuries from unsafe threshers have also been reported from India. The prevalence of schistosomiasis in the Sudan is linked to the proliferation of snails, resulting from widespread irrigation for cotton growing. We do not intend to catalogue here the variety of health hazards associated with agricultural modernization, but they may range from the not-so-subtle effects of pesticide exposure, to the unforeseen effects resulting from significant changes in the nature of raw materials for industrial production. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Agriculture and Natural Resource Adequacy

American Journal of Agricultural EconomicsVolume 64, Issue 5 p. 811-820 General Session Agriculture and Natural Resource Adequacy Emery N. Castle, Emery N. Castle president of Resources for the Future, Inc.Search for more papers by this author Emery N. Castle, Emery N. Castle president of Resources for the Future, Inc.Search for more papers by this author First published: 01 December 1982 https://doi.org/10.2307/1240740Citations: 7AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume64, Issue5December 1982Pages 811-820 RelatedInformation

Agricultural Scientists as Reluctant Revolutionaries

AbstractThe productivity of modern agriculture is a result of a remarkable fusion of technology and science. The emerging skepticism about the role of science in society has led to a questioning of the benefits from technical change in agriculture and there is a rising demand for more effective social control over the development and use of agricultural technology. Agricultural science cannot evade responsibility for the costs as well as the benefits of technical change. But it is in society's interest to let the burden of responsibility rest lightly and to insist that agricultural science maintain its commitment to expanding the productive capacity of the resources used in agricultural production. But society should also insist that agricultural science embrace an agenda that includes a concern for the effects of agricultural technology on the health and safety of agricultural producers; a concern for the nutrition and health of consumers; a concern for the impact of agricultural practices on the aesthet...

Educational, Subsidy, Agricultural Development, and Fertility Change

In this paper, the effects of continuing agricultural technical change on the allocation of resources by households between increments to family size and to schooling are examined within the context of a model of household decision-making in which education facilitates innovation. An empirical application of the model to data from India indicates, consistent with the theory, that in farm households more intensively exposed to the new technologies associated with the “green revolution,†fertility was significantly reduced, while the level of schooling investment was significantly increased. In contrast, and also consistent with the model, proximity of schools, in the absence of technical change, had only marginal effects on schooling and little impact on family size.

Technical change in Latin American agriculture: A conceptual framework for its interpretation

The authors present a critical analysis of the ideas dominating current discussions on technological development in Latin America, and introduce a methodological framework of their own. Their perspective views technology as a social phenomenon, and incorporates social conflicts and the role of the state as variables in an analysis of technical change in agriculture.