Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
Productivity Gains Are Slowing down in Many Countries Agricultural Productivity Gaps Are Still Significant Increasing Public Spending in Agricultural R&d to Ensure Food Security in Developing Countries World Developing Countries Developed Countries Sub- Saharan Africa Figure 1: Agricultural Producti
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Fuglie Keith, A. Nin-Pratt South, Asia Latin, Asia |
| Abstract | A rguably, ensuring food and nutrition security for all people in the coming decades is the major challenge for the global community. Food demand is increasing in aggregate and per capita values, in parallel with population and income growth. In order to feed 9.6 billion people by 2050, projections indicate that food production will need to be raised by 70 per cent at global level and 100 per cent in developing countries, excluding the additional agricultural production needed for feed and biofuels. At the same time, constraints and costs are increasing on the supply side, given land and water scarcity, climate change effects, and higher energy prices. Thus, agricultural production and especially productivity have to increase sustainably, particularly in the develo ping world. The key question, however, is whether productivity growth will be sufficient to ensure food security sustainably. On the one hand, yield growth for major cereals have been declining over the past decades, raising concerns about future productivity trends, food prices, and ultimately food insecurity. On the other hand, there are still significant potential agricultural productivity gains if investment in the agricultural sector , particularly in research and development, is increased and adequate reforms are implemented. This policy brief addresses these issues through the analysis of the main trends and projections on agricultural productivity, and policy measures needed to accelerate productivity gains in developing countries. In the recent past, productivity gains have been slowing down in more food insecure countries, despite significant improvements in developing countries as a whole. The total factor productivity (TFP) – the ratio of total commodity output to total inputs used in production, including labor, land, capital, and materials – has been rising around 2.2 per cent annually between 1990 and 2009, in developing countries. TFP growth has accelerated even faster, above their regional average, in big emerging economies, such as Brazil and China. However, long-run TFP growth has remained under 1 per cent a year in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa 1 , showing that many developing countries are still facing serious challenges in achieving faster productivity growth across sectors, including agriculture. The overall picture is even more challenging when using partial factor productivity indicators. First, average global yield growth of most cereals-a common indicator for land productivity has been declining for the past two decades, partly due to the increasing pressure on resources. Second, according to recent estimates in the OECD-FAO Agricultural … |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/policybrief41.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/publications/policy_briefs/policybrief41.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
