Overcoming Critical Constraints to Sustaining Productivity Growth in Key Commodities of Asia and the Pacific

Mercedita Sombilla, Dennis Mapa () and Sharon Piza
Additional contact information
Mercedita Sombilla: National Economic and Development Authority
Sharon Piza: Asian Development Bank

No 376, ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank

Abstract: Two trends on yields have been observed for rice, wheat, and even edible oils in Asia. The deceleration of yield growth is one of these trends. The other relates to the differential yield increases across countries in the region. This study provides explanations for both trends and relates these to the exhaustion of the yield potential of current technology, emerging threats posed by climate change and other disturbances, varying levels of development across countries and hence the development of infrastructure, among others. Total factor productivity (TFP) estimates for these commodities indicate the potential to overcome these constraints, however. Key determinants of TFP growth were identified and discussed. While the influence of these determinants on the TFP estimates was not tested empirically in this study because of data limitations, evidence of the relationship was clear and strong in numerous TFP studies done for the agriculture sector as a whole, and for rice and wheat in various countries including Asian countries. Long-term growth will have to come from great advances in interventions being undertaken, three of which include (i) major breakthroughs in new varieties and farming systems in both fertile and unfertile lands; (ii) the restructuring of small farms into more efficient, mechanized large-scale operations, especially in production areas with good infrastructure for market access and irrigation; and (iii) the development of market mechanisms to enhance the comparative advantage of domestic production and explore the value-adding potential of commodities, particularly edible oil. Three policy recommendations are also forwarded to achieve these great advances: (i) sustained investment in agriculture; (ii) getting the mix of institutions right; and (iii) gearing up for globalization. The role of development partners as well as the private sector in effecting sustainable growth is briefly discussed as a concluding section.

Keywords: TFP; constraints; Asia Pacific; rice; wheat; edible oil; investment; institutions; globalization; private sector; development partners (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 D57 O13 Q11 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2013-09-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cwa, nep-eff and nep-sea
Note: http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2013/ewp-376.pdf
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.adb.org/publications/overcoming-critic ... odities-asia-pacific Full text (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:adbewp:0376

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Orlee Velarde ().