IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/agecon/v13y1995i1p51-61.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sources of agricultural productivity growth and stagnation in sub‐Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • George Frisvold
  • Kevin Ingram

Abstract

This paper examines sources of agricultural growth in sub‐Saharan Africa. Growth in the stock of traditional inputs (land, labor, livestock) remains the dominant source of output growth. Growth in modern input use was of secondary importance, but still accounted for a 0.2‐0.4% annual growth rate in three of four sub‐regions. Econometric results support earlier studies that suggest that land abundance may be a constraint on land productivity growth. Growth in agricultural exports and historic caloric availability had positive impacts on productivity. These latter results suggest that positive feedback effects exist between export performance and food security on one hand and agricultural productivity on the other.

Suggested Citation

  • George Frisvold & Kevin Ingram, 1995. "Sources of agricultural productivity growth and stagnation in sub‐Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 13(1), pages 51-61, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:13:y:1995:i:1:p:51-61
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-0862.1995.tb00370.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.1995.tb00370.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1574-0862.1995.tb00370.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lipton, Michael, 1988. "The place of agricultural research in the development of sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 16(10), pages 1231-1257, October.
    2. Peterson, Willis L., 1987. "International Land Quality Indexes," Staff Papers 13877, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    3. Cleaver, K., 1993. "A Strategy to Develop Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa and a Focus for the World Bank," Papers 203, World Bank - Technical Papers.
    4. Hans Binswanger & Prabhu Pingali, 1989. "Technological priorities for farming in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(1), pages 46-65, January.
    5. Gyimah-Brempong, Kwabena, 1991. "Export Instability and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(4), pages 815-828, July.
    6. Carl K. Eicher, 1990. "Building African Scientific Capacity for Agricultural Development," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 4(2), pages 117-143, June.
    7. Dhaneshwar Ghura & Richard E. Just, 1992. "Education, Infrastructure and Instability in East African Agriculture: Implications for Structural Adjustment Programs," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 1(1), pages 85-107.
    8. Behrman, Jere R & Deolalikar, Anil B & Wolfe, Barbara L, 1988. "Nutrients: Impacts and Determinants," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 2(3), pages 299-320, September.
    9. Wheeler, David, 1980. "Basic needs fulfillment and economic growth : A simultaneous model," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 435-451, December.
    10. Edwards, Sebastian, 1993. "Openness, Trade Liberalization, and Growth in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1358-1393, September.
    11. Antle, John M, 1983. "Infrastructure and Aggregate Agricultural Productivity: International Evidence," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 609-619, April.
    12. Fuller, Wayne A. & Battese, George E., 1974. "Estimation of linear models with crossed-error structure," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 67-78, May.
    13. Haley, Stephen L., 1991. "Capital accumulation and the growth of aggregate agricultural production," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 6(2), pages 129-157, December.
    14. Fosu, Augustin Kwasi, 1990. "Exports and economic growth: The African case," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 831-835, June.
    15. Lau, Lawrence J. & Yotopoulos, Pan A., 1989. "The meta-production function approach to technological change in world agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 241-269, October.
    16. Mohan Rao, J. & Caballero, Jose Maria, 1990. "Agricultural performance and development strategy: Retrospect and prospect," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 899-913, June.
    17. Eicher, Carl K., 1990. "Building African scientific capacity for agricultural development," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 117-143, June.
    18. Stephen L. Haley, 1991. "Capital accumulation and the growth of aggregate agricultural production," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 6(2), pages 129-157, December.
    19. Dũng Nguyen, 1979. "On Agricultural Productivity Differences among Countries," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 61(3), pages 565-570.
    20. Singer, H. W., 1984. "Success stories of the 1970s: Some correlations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 12(9), pages 951-952, September.
    21. Yair Mundlak & René Hellinghausen, 1982. "The Intercountry Agricultural Production Function: Another View," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(4), pages 664-672.
    22. Tybout, James R, 1992. "Linking Trade and Productivity: New Research Directions," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 6(2), pages 189-211, May.
    23. Oram, Peter A. & Zapata, Juan Antonio & Alibaruho, George & Roy, Shyamal, 1979. "Investment and input requirements for accelerating food production in low-income countries by 1990:," Research reports 10, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Butzer, Rita & Mundlak, Yair & Larson, Donald F., 2010. "Measures of fixed capital in agriculture," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5472, The World Bank.
    2. Howard, Peter & Sterner, Thomas, 2014. "Raising the Temperature on Food Prices: Climate Change, Food Security, and the Social Cost of Carbon," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170648, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Trueblood, Michael A., 1994. "An Annotated Bibliography Of Selected Productivity Literature," Staff Papers 13580, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    4. Fulginiti, Lilyan E & Perrin, Richard K, 1993. "Prices and Productivity in Agriculture," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(3), pages 471-482, August.
    5. Augustin Kwasi Fosu, 2000. "The International Dimension of African Economic Growth," CID Working Papers 34, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    6. Craig, Barbara J. & Pardey, Philip G. & Roseboom, Johannes, 1994. "International Agricultural Productivity Patterns," Working Papers 14470, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
    7. Mundlak, Yair & Butzer, Rita & Larson, Donald F., 2012. "Heterogeneous technology and panel data: The case of the agricultural production function," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 139-149.
    8. Mundlak, Yair, 1997. "Leonard K. Elmhirst Lecture: The Dynamics of Agriculture," 1997 Conference, August 10-16, 1997, Sacramento, California 197028, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Macours, Karen & Swinnen, Johan F. M., 2000. "Causes of Output Decline in Economic Transition: The Case of Central and Eastern European Agriculture," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 172-206, March.
    10. Mundlak, Yair & Larson, Don & Butzer, Ritz, 1997. "The determinants of agricultural production : a cross-country analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1827, The World Bank.
    11. Pardey, Philip G. & Roseboom, Johannes & Beintema, Nienke M., 1997. "Investments in african agricultural research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 409-423, March.
    12. Dione, Josue, 1995. "Human Capital Investment for Agricultural Competitiveness in West Africa," 1994 Conference, August 22-29, 1994, Harare, Zimbabwe 183437, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Eicher, Carl K., 1994. "Zimbabwe's Green Revolution: Preconditions for Replication in Africa," Staff Paper Series 201176, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    14. Savvides, Andreas, 1995. "Economic growth in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 449-458, March.
    15. Larson, Bruce A. & Frisvold, George B., 1996. "Fertilizers to support agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa: what is needed and why," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 509-525, December.
    16. George E. Battese & D. S. Prasada Rao, 2002. "Technology Gap, Efficiency, and a Stochastic Metafrontier Function," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 1(2), pages 87-93, August.
    17. Billé, AG & Salvioni, C. & Benedetti, R., 2015. "Spatial Heterogeneity In Production Functions Models," 150th Seminar, October 22-23, 2015, Edinburgh, Scotland 212662, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Fernandes, Ana M., 2007. "Trade policy, trade volumes and plant-level productivity in Colombian manufacturing industries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 52-71, March.
    19. Rukuni, Mandivamba & Blackie, Malcolm J. & Eicher, Carl K., 1998. "Crafting smallholder-driven agricultural research systems in Southern Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1073-1087, June.
    20. Aleksander Grzelak, 2022. "The income-assets relationship for farms operating under selected models in Poland," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(2), pages 59-67.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:13:y:1995:i:1:p:51-61. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.