Files
Abstract
This paper examines partial agricultural land and labour productivity in 1975 and 1980, for
different world regions. The results suggest that land and labour productivity are higher in developed
countries relative to developing countries. However, agricultural labour productivity differences
are more marked than those for agricultural land productivity. The productivity values for
1975 and 1980 indicate a widening of productivity differences, more so in the case of agricultural
labour than land.
The paper also proposes an alternative approach to estimating agricultural land and labour
productivity. This approach, which regresses agricultural labour productivity on a given level of
agricultural land productivity, suggests a narrowing of agricultural land productivity differences,
relative to the initial approach, across Africa, Asia and Europe during the 1975-1980 period. A
brief discussion of the agricultural development policy implications of the results concludes the
paper.