Wei Zhang named GAP Initiative VT Faculty Research Fellow
April 23, 2021
CALS Global funds research on the impact of extreme weather events on productivity growth
For the first time, Virginia Tech CALS Global is funding original research and analysis as part of the Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative (GAP Initiative).
The fellowship provides funding for research linking agricultural productivity, measured as Total Factor Productivity (TFP), and topics including sustainable agriculture systems, agricultural technologies and practices, food and nutrition security, and access to agronomic knowledge.
For 2021-2022, Wei Zhang, assistant professor in agricultural and applied economics has been awarded the fellowship for her proposal to research the dynamic relationship between extreme climate events and the resilience of agricultural systems, through the lens of TFP growth.
Her research collaborator will be Jean-Paul Chavas, professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In her proposal, Zhang wrote that in addition to changes in climate averages, we are learning that extreme climate events have substantial impacts on the productivity and sustainability of agricultural systems. Many regions in the world are experiencing changes in climate extremes, including the frequency and severity of droughts, cold spells, heat waves, and floods. When extreme climate events occur, many aspects of agricultural systems are influenced, with the potential for significant challenges to TFP growth.
The ultimate goal of Zhang and Chavas’ research is to shed light on the design of government programs and potential private-public partnerships for climate adaptation and agricultural sustainability.
Their original research will be published in the 2022 Global Agricultural Productivity Report and featured on the GAP Report website. A preview of their research program will be included in the forthcoming 2021 GAP Report: The Case for Productivity.
A recent report from the Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation has found that investments in the CGIAR system yield a ten-to-one return on investment in low- and middle-income countries, with additional follow-on benefits impacting higher income and donor countries as well. Over the last 50 years of CGIAR’s operations, approximately $60 billion have been […]
Traditional rice farming techniques in India are becoming environmentally unsustainable. Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) is an alternative resource-efficient technology that minimizes the environmental impact of rice farming while improving farmer livelihoods. Corteva Agriscience’s integrated rice farming program helps farmers better understand and realize the benefits of DSR. Rice farming in Asia Rice is the staple food […]
The Mosaic Company is working to equip farmers with the tools to harness the fertility power of soil health. Through new products like the Sus-Terra Fertilizer and partnerships with BioConsortia, Sound Agriculture, and AgBiome, The Mosaic Company is forging a new future for fertilizer technology that enhances and utilizes soil’s natural ecological microbial biome. What […]
Deere & Company is not only working to improve productivity on the farm but also in the factory by bringing connectivity to rural America. Deere’s manufacturing facilities are very complex environments that rely heavily on internet connectivity and access. Advanced internet connectivity enables Deere & Company to fully embrace the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, […]
A coalition of researchers and scientists at Bayer Crop Science are working together to protect the world’s most popular banana variety from the Tropical Race 4 fungal pathogen. TR4, also named Panama Disease, is a new fungal pathogen threatening the future of the Cavendish banana, which accounts for 95% of banana production. Over 400 million […]
ARE TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY AND YIELD THE SAME THING?
NO!
Yield and total factor productivity are ratios of outputs to inputs, but they are not the same, and the distinction matters.
Yield measures output per unit of a single input, for example, the amount of crops grown on a hectare of land. Yields can increase through productivity growth, but they can also increase by applying more inputs, called input intensification. Therefore, an increase in yield may or may not represent improvements in sustainability.
Total factor productivity captures the interaction between multiple agricultural inputs and outputs. (Ortiz-Bobea et al., 2021) TFP growth indicates that more farmers generate more crops, livestock, and aquaculture products with the same amount or less land, labor, fertilizer, feed, machinery, and livestock. As a result, TFP is a powerful metric for evaluating and monitoring the sustainability of agricultural systems.
