In the last decade, world agricultural output grew at an average annual rate of 1.94% per year, far slower than the 2.74% output growth rate over the previous decade and below the average annual rate of 2.3% over the last six decades (1961-2021).
The slowdown in agricultural growth was primarily tied to a slowing rate of growth in agricultural total factor productivity (TFP), which fell to 1.14% per year in 2011-21 (compared with 1.93% per year the previous decade).
TFP measures the amount of agricultural output produced from the aggregated inputs used in the production process (land, labor, capital and material resources).
The figure shows four major sources of overall growth: bringing more land into production (holding yields fixed); extending irrigation to land; intensifying the use of capital, labor and material inputs per unit of land; and improving TFP, which reflects the rate of technological and efficiency improvements of inputs. — USDA Economic Research Service
