The Economics of Agricultural Productivity in South Africa

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.