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Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators: Agricultural Productivity

Doris Newton and Jet Yee

No. (AH722) , November 2000

Productivity, which measures the increase in outputs not accounted for by the growth in production inputs, is a closely watched economic performance indicator because of its contribution to a healthy and thriving economy. Agriculture, in particular, has been a very successful sector of the U.S. economy in terms of productivity growth. U.S. agricultural output grew at an average rate of 1.89 percent annually from 1948 to 1996, entirely due to productivity growth. In contrast, output growth in other sectors of the economy was largely from increased use of inputs. Productivity growth in agriculture can be attributed to investments in research and development (R&D;), extension, education, and infrastructure.

Keywords: productivity, agriculture, factors, land, labor, capital, ERS, USDA

In this series ...

Reports are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

Chapter 5.1: Agricultural Productivity, 93 kb.

Contents

  • Trends in U.S. Agricultural Productivity, Input Use, and Output
  • Agricultural Productivity Compared With Other Sectors
  • Differences Among States in Agricultural Productivity Growth
  • Factors Affecting Agricultural Productivity
  • References

See other chapters in the Agricultural Resources and Environmental Indicators series.

Updated date: November 6, 2000

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