Agricultural Productivity in the United States

Overview

It is widely agreed that increased productivity is the main contributor to economic growth in U.S. agriculture. This data set provides estimates of productivity growth in the U.S. farm sector for the 1948-2008 period, and estimates of the growth and relative levels of productivity across the States for the period 1960-2004. Note that this data series has been revised (see the complete documentation for details, or go to the data tables).

The level of U.S. farm output in 2008 was 158 percent above its level in 1948, growing at an average annual rate of 1.58 percent. Aggregate input use increased a mere 0.06 percent annually, so the positive growth in farm sector output was very substantially due to productivity growth. This contrasts with a 3.6-percent annual output increase in the private nonfarm sector, with productivity growth accounting for a little more than a third of the economic growth. But what exactly is productivity?

Single-factor measures of productivity, such as corn production per acre (yield or land productivity) or per hour of labor (labor productivity), have been used for many years because the underlying data are often easily available. While useful, such measures can also mislead. For example, yields could increase simply because farmers are adding more of other inputs, such as chemicals, labor, or machinery, to their land base. USDA produces measures of total factor productivity, taking account of the use of all inputs to the production process.

Specifically, annual productivity growth is the difference between growth of agricultural output and the growth of all inputs taken together (methods for combining inputs are described in the documentation). Productivity therefore measures changes in the efficiency with which inputs are transformed into outputs. USDA also produces State-level productivity measures—annual productivity growth rates as well as cross-State differences in levels of productivity, or differences in output per unit of combined inputs. Input measures are adjusted for changes in their quality, such as improvements in the efficacy of chemicals and seeds, changes in the demographics of the farm workforce, or innovations in machinery design. As a result, agricultural productivity is driven by innovations in onfarm tasks, changes in the organization and structure of the farm sector, research aimed at improvements in farm production, and/or random events like weather.

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Major findings of the data include:

• Agricultural output growth slowed during the 1999-2001 period and contracted -1.93 percent in 2002 due to a severe drought throughout most of the western United States . Accordingly, measured productivity growth dropped to -1.45% in 2002. But the return of favorable weather in 2003 and 2004 led to sharp increases in output and productivity, with productivity growing by 4.0 percent in 2003 and 5.7 percent in 2004. On average, productivity slowed for the 2000-2007 period, by 0.72 percent per year, and bounced back to 5.89 percent in 2008 (see table).

• U.S. agricultural productivity growth compares favorably to agricultural productivity growth in other industrialized countries, and to productivity growth in the overall U.S. economy (Ball et al., 2001, 2007).

• All but four States exhibited positive rates of growth in agricultural output over the 1960-2004 period. Output expanded most rapidly in Arkansas, growing an average 2.8 percent per year (see table).

• Every State exhibited a positive average annual rate of productivity growth over the entire 45-year period. Average annual rates of growth ranged from 2.6 percent for Oregon to 0.5 percent for Oklahoma. California and Florida had the highest relative levels of productivity in 2004 (see table).

Data Files

Tables are in Excel. A single workbook with all tables in multiple worksheets is also available: AllTables.xls

National Tables, 1948-2008

Table 1—Indices of farm output, input, and total factor productivity for the United States, 1948-2008

Table 2—Sources of growth in the U.S. farm sector (average annual rates)

State-Level Tables, Relative Level Indices and Growth, 1960-2004

—Outputs

Table 3—Total farm output by State

Table 4—Crop output

Table 5—Livestock output

Table 6—Other farm-related output

—Inputs

Table 7—Total farm input by State

Table 8—Capital input (excluding land)

Table 9—Land input

Table 10—Total labor input

Table 11—Hired labor

Table 12— Self-employed and unpaid family labor

Table 13—Total intermediate input

Table 14—Energy input

Table 15—Agricultural chemical input

Table 16—Pesticide consumption

Table 17—Fertilizer consumption

Table 18—Other intermediate inputs

—Total Factor Productivity

Table 19—Indices of total factor productivity by State

State Ranking Tables

Table 20—States ranked by level and growth of farm output

Table 21—States ranked by level and growth of inputs

Table 22—States ranked by level and growth of productivity

AllTables.xls—All of the above, table 1 through table 22 in one Excel workbook

Data Documentation and Methods

Get details about how the data series is constructed, and examples of its use in research.