Agricultural Productivity Growth in the United States: Measurement, Drivers, and Impacts

This paper provides a brief introduction to the methodology of U.S. official agricultural productivity statistics; the patterns of growth in U.S. agricultural output, input, and productivity in the post-war period; the drivers and impacts of U.S. agricultural productivity growth; and the challenges of the productivity program. U.S. agricultural output has nearly tripled since 1948 at an average growth rate of 1.63 % per year from 1948 to 2009. With little growth in input, the extraordinary performance in U.S. farm production has been driven mainly by total factor productivity growth at an average annual rate of 1.52%. Since public research funding has been under pressure, how to maintain a sustainable rate of productivity growth in the long-run has become an emerging and crucial issue