Figure 3.1 Average TFP growth by income group, 1961–2022 (baseline = 1961)
Technological diffusion in agriculture can transform farms and livelihoods worldwide. This chapter focuses on two agricultural technologies, genetically modified crops and precision agriculture technologies, to identify factors that facilitate their diffusion and barriers that slow their adoption across countries and farms. The chapter shows that while modern tools can boost productivity, profits, and sustainability, uneven access risks widening gaps between countries and between large and small farms. Advances in agriculture have played a major role in reducing poverty, improving food security, and raising living standards around the world.1 New crop varieties, better farming tools, and improved practices have helped farmers grow more food and earn more income. One study found that hectare each year in countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.2 Another study estimated that 6.2 billion annually and boosted regional productivity by 47 percent over three decades from 1980 productive. One way of measuring this productivity is total factor productivity (TPF). TFP compares how much output farmers produce with the amount of land, labor, machinery, and other inputs they use.4 When TFP grows, farmers produce more output from the same bundle of inputs. This practices, and institutional changes. It represents an efficiency gain in how agricultural resources made fast progress, while others have seen slower gains. Since productivity often grows when farmers adopt new technologies, the gap between high-performing and low-performing countries risks widening the productivity divide between the richer and poorer economies. In addition, farmers face constant challenges in maintaining and increasing crop yields due to