Productivity Growth and Resource Degradation in Pakistan's Punjab : A Decomposition Analysis

Ali, Mubarik ; Byerlee, Derek

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY;    AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS;    AGRICULTURE;    ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY;    ANIMALS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2480
RP-ID  :  WPS2480

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The introduction of green revolutiontechnologies in wheat, and rice production in Asia, in themid 1960s reversed the food crisis, and stimulated rapidagricultural, and economic growth. But the sustainability ofthis intensification strategy is being questioned, in lightof the heavy use of external inputs, and growing evidence ofa slowdown in productivity growth, and degradation of theresource base. The authors address the critical issue oflong-term productivity, and the sustainability ofPakistan's irrigated agriculture. To estimate changesin total factor productivity in four production systems ofPunjab province, they assemble district-level data on 33crops, 8 livestock products, and 17 input categories. Theyfind that average annual growth in total factor productivitywas moderately high (1.26 percent) for both crops, andlivestock for the period 1966-94, but observe wide variationin productivity growth by cropping system. A second,disaggregated data set on soil, and water quality revealssignificant resource degradation. The authors use the twodata sets to decompose the effects of technical change, andresource degradation through application of a cost function.They find that continuous, and widespread resourcedegradation (as measured by soil and water qualityvariables) has had a significant negative effect onproductivity, especially in the wheat-rice system, whereresource degradation has more than offset the productivityeffects of technological change. Degradation of the healthof the agro-ecosystem was related in part, to moderntechnologies, mono-cropping, and mismanagement of waterresources. The results call for urgent analysis oftechnology, and options to arrest the degradation of resources.