Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Measuring The Relative Importance Of Different Agricultural Inputs To Global And Regional Crop Yield Growth Since 1975, Erik Nelson, Clare Bates Congdon
Measuring The Relative Importance Of Different Agricultural Inputs To Global And Regional Crop Yield Growth Since 1975, Erik Nelson, Clare Bates Congdon
Economics Department Working Paper Series
We identify the agricultural inputs that drove the growth in global and regional crop yields from 1975 to the mid-2000s. We find that improvements in agricultural technology, increased fertilizer use, and changes in crop mix around the world explained most of the gain in global crop yields, although impacts varied across the latitude gradient. Climate change over this time period caused yields to be only slightly lower than they would have been otherwise. In some cases cropland extensification had as much of a negative impact on global and regional yields as climate change. To maintain the momentum in yield growth …