Agricultural productivity and policies in Sub-Saharan Africa

Alejandro Nin-Pratt and Bingxin Yu
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alejandro Nin Pratt (a.ninpratt@cgiar.org)

No 1150, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: We analyze the evolution of Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA's) agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) over the past 45 years, looking for evidence of recent changes in growth patterns using an improved nonparametric Malmquist index. Our TFP estimates show a remarkable recovery in the performance of SSA's agriculture between 1984 and 2006 after a long period of poor performance and decline. That recovery is the consequence of improved efficiency in production, resulting from changes in the output structure and an adjustment in the use of inputs. Policy interventions, including fiscal, trade, and sector-specific policies, appear to have played an important role in improving agricultural performance. Despite the improved agricultural performance, economies in SSA face serious challenges to sustain growth. Among these are the small contribution of technological change to TFP growth in the past, the large tax burden imposed by remaining distortions, and the challenge of population growth.

Keywords: Agriculture; Efficiency; Malmquist index; policy; Technical change; Total factor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr and nep-eff
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Agricultural Productivity and Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1150

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