Agriculture in the Global Economy

Abstract

The past 50–100 years have witnessed dramatic changes in agricultural production and productivity, driven to a great extent by public and private investments in agricultural research, with profound implications especially for the world's poor. In this article, we first discuss how the high-income countries like the United States represent a declining share of global agricultural output while middle-income countries like China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia represent a rising share. We then look at the differing patterns of agricultural inputs across countries and the divergent productivity paths taken by their agricultural sectors. Next we examine productivity more closely and the evidence that the global rate of agricultural productivity growth is declining—with potentially serious prospects for the price and availability of food for the poorest people in the world. Finally we consider patterns of agricultural research and development efforts.

Cambio climático y agricultura: una revisión de la literatura con énfasis en América Latina

“…En 2010, aproximadamente 2 600 millones de personas en el mundo dependían económicamente de este sector (Alston y Pardey, 2014). Alrededor de 40% de la superficie terrestre del planeta está ocupada por la agricultura y la ganadería; aproximadamente 1 500 millones de hectáreas de tierra son utilizadas para plantar cultivos mientras que 3 500 millones se utilizan para pastoreo (Howden, et al, 2007;Alston y Pardey, 2014).…”

“…Por ejemplo, en 2010 la agricultura representaba, en promedio, 29% del PIB total en países con ingresos bajos (países con ingresos per cápita por debajo de 1 005 dólares); mientras que para los países de ingresos medios y altos representaba 10.5 y 1.5% (Alston y Pardey, 2014). La gráfica 1 muestra, para un conjunto de países Latinoamericanos, que conforme el PIB per cápita aumenta, la importancia relativa del sector agrícola disminuye.…”

Making the Most of Natural Resources in Indonesia

“…In 2012, of the world's 7.1 billion people, an estimated 1.3 billion (19%) were directly engaged in farming, yet agriculture represented just 2.8% of global income (Alston and Pardey, 2014). In Indonesia, agriculture accounted for around 12% of GDP in 2013, and employed about 42 million people, or 40% of the workforce (OECD, 2012b).…”

Powering production. The case of the sisal fibre production in the Tanga region, Tanzania

“…First of all, in developing countries, powering production activities is a pre-condition for increasing productivity and adopting better production technologies ( (Kay, 2009) (Andreoni, 2011) (Alston & Pardey, 2014)). In the analysis of the energy-production nexus in the developing countries context, the agricultural sector takes central stage given its contribution to income generation and employment creation.…”