An Integral Indicator of Effectiveness of Agricultural Production

The effectiveness of agricultural production is determined by the level of return on three groups of production resources: labor, material, land. Each of these resources has its own indicator of the effectiveness of utilization: labor productivity, output-capital ratio, and productivity of the land. Statistical comparisons of these indicators show that in any aggregate, their motion is at different rates or even in different directions. For example, between 1970 and 1977 labor productivity in USSR agriculture increased by 24%, the productivity of land increased by 12%, and the output-capital ratio declined by 30%. In order to use these data to determine the direction and rate of motion of the effectiveness of agricultural production, heterogeneous production resources must be reducible to an integral indicator of the resource potential of the agricultural branch.