The Economics of Agricultural Productivity in South Africa

Nick Vink, Beatrice Conradie and Nicolette Matthews
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Beatrice Conradie: School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Nicolette Matthews: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Annual Review of Resource Economics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 1, 131-149

Abstract: Accurate measures of productivity growth are an important policy tool but are difficult to obtain in South African circumstances. In this article, we review work on the measurement of farm-level productivity in South Africa since the earliest attempts at multifactor indices in the early 1990s. The focus is on total factor productivity, but single input measures such as labor and land productivity (yields) are also discussed. Measurements using time-series and cross-sectional data are discussed separately, along with measures to explain the effect of climate change. Data deficiencies are also pointed out. The article concludes that international collaboration should be maintained if important issues such as the COVID-19 impact, food security, climate change, and labor market shocks are to be successfully addressed.

Keywords: agriculture; inverse relationship; productivity; returns to research; South Africa; spillovers; TFP; total factor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O33 Q2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1146/annurev-resource-111920-014135

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