The role of agricultural productivity in economic development is addressed in a two-sector model of endogenous growth in which a) preferences are non-homothetic and the income elasticity of demand for the agricultural good is less than unitary, and b) the engine of growth is learning-by-doing in the manufacturing sector. For the closed economy case, the model predicts a positive link between agricultural productivity and economic growth and thus provides a formalization of the conventional wisdom, which asserts that agricultural revolution is a precondition for industrial revolution. For the open economy case, however, the model predicts a negative link; that is, an economy with a relatively unproductive agricultural sector experiences faster and accelerating growth. The result suggests that the openness of an economy should be an important factor when planning development strategy and predicting growth performance.

Africa is backward in economic growth, food security, child nutrition, and health, and is combating environmental degradation, is beset by conflicts, and has the highest population growth rate in the world. One of the core contributing factors is the weak performance of the agricultural sector. Liberalisation of agricultural markets became a core issue in development policy, but this does not address the problem. This study discusses the question of whether developing countries have lost their comparative advantage in agricultural products due to a change in productivity growth rates. Firstly, agricultural productivity in developed countries increases immensely in comparison with developing countries; this leads to a growing international productivity gap. Secondly, productivity growth rates in the agricultural sector exceed those in the industrial sector. The first observation results in a loss of competitiveness and the first and second together cause a diminishing comparative advantage in agriculture in developing countries. The book offers interesting perspectives about the growing global divergence with strong theoretical foundations and empirical evidence. It is aimed at policy makers, professionals, academics, and students of economics and political sciences, and anyone with an interest in development study.

Analyses how various political and economic factors have interacted to prevent Japan achieving high agricultural productivity at the same time that it was experiencing remarkable growth in its industrial productivity.

Agricultural Productivity: Measurement and Sources of Growth addresses measurement issues and techniques in agricultural productivity analysis, applying those techniques to recently published data sets for American agriculture. The data sets are used to estimate and explain state level productivity and efficiency differences, and to test different approaches to productivity measurement. The rise in agricultural productivity is the single most important source of economic growth in the U.S. farm sector, and the rate of productivity growth is estimated to be higher in agriculture than in the non-farm sector. It is important to understand productivity sources and to measure its growth properly, including the effects of environmental externalities. Both the methods and the data can be accessed by economists at the state level to conduct analyses for their own states. In a sense, although not explicitly, the book provides a guide to using the productivity data available on the website of the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Economic Research Service. It should be of interest to a broad spectrum of professionals in academia, the government, and the private sector.

The framework for discussion includes three components: increased incomes resulting from growth in the agricultural sector; the expenditure of that increased income; and the consequent expansion of other sectors of the economy.

The growth of agricultural productivity is widely believed to be low. But this study finds the productivity rate in agriculture to be higher than that in manufacturing, both on average and for groups of countries at different stages of development. This suggests that a large agricultural sector need not be a disadvantage for growth performance, and may be an advantage.