Harvesting Prosperity: Technology and Productivity Growth in Agriculture

Abstract

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Legal Complexities of Animal Welfare in Australia: Do On-Animal Sensors Offer a Future Option?

“…Producers are generally unaware of available technology options [ 74 ] and are heavily influenced by adoption and outcomes on neighbouring properties [ 75 ]. Marketing of current and future technologies needs to reinforce that the data derived aids decision making and intends to support and enhance current practices, cognisant that a producer’s knowledge and use of low-stress stock handling practices cannot be replaced [ 41 , 76 ].…”

“…Producers risk software and system compatibility issues with current or future technology choices [ 77 ], increasing the potential cost burden. This highlights a need for research to better understand capital and ongoing costs, ease of integration and return on investment of the technology [ 74 ]. Further on-farm government or industry funded research, collaborating with small to large producers would help alleviate cost burden to the producer and incentivise uptake [ 35 , 62 , 74 ].…”

Going Viral : COVID-19 and the Accelerated Transformation of Jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Studies comparing the longterm performance of national agriculture sectors have consistently found that countries that invest more in agricultural R&D achieve higher agricultural productivity growth (Craig, Pardey, and Roseboom 1997;Evenson and Fuglie 2009;Evenson and Kislev 1975;Thirtle, Lin, and Piesse 2003). Fuglie et al (2020) summarize the results of studies that econometrically estimated the impact of R&D on agricultural TFP growth in one or more developing countries. The elasticities appear to show systematic variation in the elasticities of R&D among regions.…”

The Future of Work in Agriculture: Some Reflections

“…It is often seen as proof of agriculture being intrinsically less productive and taken as suggestive that the policy solution for agricultural labor in the developing world lies in removing barriers that prevent people from exiting agriculture (Restuccia, Yang and Zhu 2008). Recent research, however, suggests that agricultural labor productivity is understated (Fuglie et al 2020). Using micro household data instead of national macro accounts, controlling for skill differences, and expressing productivity in terms of value per hour of labor (instead of per person employed in the sector), labor productivity in agriculture is not lower than in other sectors (Gollin, Lagakos and Waugh 2014;Gollin and Udry 2019;Hicks et al 2017;McCullough 2017).…”