Photo by Mark Stebnicki, NC Farm Bureau
A new report from Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences warns that a dramatic slowdown in agricultural productivity growth threatens the world’s ability to feed a rising population and address environmental concerns. According to Powering Productivity: Scaling High-Impact Bundles of Proven and Emerging Tools, agricultural productivity growth (known as agricultural total factor productivity or TFP growth) has slowed from 1.9% annually during 2001-2010 to 0.7% annually during 2013-2022, requiring urgent action.
One of the main issues is that proven and emerging tools that could boost TFP growth often remain stuck on the shelf, unable to advance from the development stage to commercialization and widespread adoption – a phenomenon known as the ‘Valley of Death’.
“This dramatic slowdown will prevent us from reaching our agricultural production and sustainability goals by 2050, with potentially dire impacts on food and nutrition security unless we reverse this trend,” cautioned Tom Thompson, the report’s executive editor, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and director of CALS Global at Virginia Tech.
A Route to Sustainable Productivity Growth
To reinvigorate sustainable TFP growth and bridge the “Valley of Death”, the GAP Report highlights several evidence-based policy, investment, and research priorities:
- Invest in agricultural innovation systems to facilitate the dissemination and adoption of knowledge and technology, ensuring sustainable access for producers of all sizes, especially smallholder producers
- Expand robust and resilient market access so that producers at all scales of production can access competitive input and output markets for maximum productivity and profitability
- Strengthen regional and global trade, which has been shown to boost agricultural productivity growth by opening up larger markets, creating opportunities for specialization, and facilitating the flow of productivity-enhancing tools
- Improve quality and reduce loss of outputs byreducing food loss and waste. This increases the value and quantity of usable output from the same or fewer inputs. Adapting policies and technologies to specific commodities and local contexts is essential in the face of challenges such as a changing climate, pests, disease, and limited access to resources, including affordable financing
- Cultivate partnerships and cooperation as a proven way to help improve agricultural innovation and accelerate the development and sharing of technologies, practices, and knowledge by tailoring productivity-enhancing tools for different contexts
- Strategically bundle production tools with socio-economic, policy, and distribution mechanisms to help power productivity growth and create bridges across the “Valley of Death” tailored to local contexts and cultures
About the GAP Report
The GAP Report is part of the GAP Initiative. The initiative brings together expertise from Virginia Tech and other universities, the private and public sectors, civil society organizations, and global research institutions to align efforts to accelerate agricultural productivity growth worldwide.