Total factor productivity of tropical soybean-maize systems: the case of the safrinha crop system in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Improving agricultural productivity has been an important area of research to assure that the needs of a growing population do not outstrip the ability for producers to supply food. This growth in demand will mostly come from developing countries. The tension between producing more food and reducing the impact on the world’s natural resources reflects a significant challenge for global agribusiness in general, and specifically in the new agricultural growth regions in the tropics. Therefore the primary objective of this research is to better understand and examine the production economics of the tropical soybean-maize succession cropping, which have not received much attention by researchers, and thus are not well understood. This paper measures changes in agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) from the succession cropping system of soybean and maize in Mato Grosso, Brazil from 2005 to 2012 using farm level data. The second objective of this research is to analyze the input and output factors driving total factor productivity. Total factor productivity takes into consideration all of agricultural inputs (land, labor, fertilizer, seed, pesticide, diesel, and machinery) used in the production of soybean and second maize (safrinha) crops and compares them with the total amount of agricultural output. A Tornqvist index is created to minimize biases that may result from relative price changes in input and output cost shares. The results indicate that the agricultural TFP of the soybean-maize succession cropping system increased 6% from 2007-2012.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural & Applied Econ

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Montesdeoca, Krystal

Contributors dc:contributor

• Goldsmith, Peter D.

• Total Factor Productivity
• Tornqvist Index
• Farm level data
• Output, Input
• Soybean
• Maize
• Safrinha
• Succession Cropping
• Mato Grosso

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2014 Krystal Montesdeoca

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50646

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50646