R. Murgai et al., Productivity growth and sustainability in post-Green Revolution agriculture: The case of the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs, WORLD B RES, 16(2), 2001, pp. 199-218
This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainab
ility of irrigated agriculture in the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs by measur
ing trends in total factor productivity for production systems in both stat
es since the advent of the Green Revolution. These measurements over time a
nd across systems have resulted in three major findings. First, there were
wide spatial and temporal variations between the two Punjabs. Although outp
ut growth and crop yields were much higher in the Indian Punjab, productivi
ty growth was higher by only a small margin. Moreover, the lowest growth in
productivity took place during the initial Green Revolution period (as opp
osed to the later intensification and post-Green Revolution periods) and in
the wheat-rice system in both states. The time lag between adoption of Gre
en Revolution technologies and realization of productivity gains is related
to learning-induced efficiency gains, better utilization of capital invest
ments over time, and problems with the standard methods of productivity mea
surement that downwardly bias estimates, particularly during the Green Revo
lution period. Second, input growth accounted for most of the output growth
in both Punjabs during the period under study. Third, intensification, esp
ecially in the wheat-rice system, resulted in resource degradation in both
Punjabs. Data from Pakistan show that resource degradation reduced overall
productivity growth from technical change and from education and infrastruc
ture investment by one-third. These findings imply the need for policies th
at promote agricultural productivity and sustainability through public inve
stments in education, roads, and research and extension; and that reduce re
source degradation by decreasing or eliminating subsidies that encourage in
tensification of inputs.