By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
October 2, 2025
Farmers in many regions are already experiencing longer dry spells, unseasonable heatwaves and erratic weather due to climate change - Copyright AFP/File STR
Innovation in agriculture is falling dangerously behind the demands placed on farmers and agri-food systems. This is the stark headline from a new academic report. The report discusses straining future supplies of critical products such as eggs, cotton, and corn- and soy-based biofuels.
The report, titled Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report, comes from Viginia Tech.
At the centre of the report is total factor productivity (TFP), an efficiency measure that tracks how effectively agricultural inputs such as land, labour, and capital are converted into outputs.
The TFP model organises existing and emerging technologies, practices, and management tactics into four domains, helping investors, policymakers, researchers, and innovators pinpoint what is holding growth back — and where opportunities lie.
TFP growth is widely regarded as a barometer of innovation in agriculture. However, global TFP growth has dropped to just 0.76 percent annually during the past decade, barely a third of the 2 percent target needed to sustainably meet demand by mid-century.
Addressing this problematic TFP growth plateau is essential to keeping food and agricultural products available and affordable, ensuring farmers are profitable, and protecting environmental systems, according to the report’s authors.
This will be challenging since these goals face obstacles in the form of global trade disruptions and declining public research investment slow progress.
Problems with U.S. agriculture
Take the case of the U.S. Here productivity growth of the past decade has fallen behind its competitors. Between 2011-20, U.S. agricultural productivity growth declined, decreasing an average 0.05 percent annually, while China surged ahead with 1.9 percent annual growth, fuelled by double the research and development (R&D) investment of the U.S.
The risk is that without renewed gains, farmers will not be able to make a sustainable living providing vital goods to the economy. To counterbalance this, the report argues for a step-change in public research spending and innovation systems so that farmers have affordable, effective productivity-enhancing tools.
The report offers four recommendations to reinvigorate U.S. growth:
Reignite public R&D investment
Public R&D spending is the cornerstone of sustainable productivity growth. Decades of underinvestment have slowed the pace of discovery. Evidence suggests that pushing out the TFP Growth Frontier will require increasing public agricultural R&D investment by $2.2 billion, comparable to the post–World War II expansion of the U.S. research enterprise.
Close the adoption chasm
Accelerating the adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies, practices, and management tactics across all scales of production is essential to reaching the TFP Growth Frontier. Closing the gap between innovation and adoption requires a revitalized agricultural knowledge and innovation system with coordinated support across financial, infrastructure, and human capital dimensions.
Strengthen the regulatory environment
A modern, efficient, and science-based regulatory framework is critical to reducing innovation bottlenecks and ensuring the timely deployment of productivity-enhancing technologies. For example, the current Coordinated Framework for Biotechnology, established in 1987, has not kept pace with scientific advancements, resulting in prolonged and costly approval processes for genetically engineered traits and crop-protection technologies
Foster public-private collaboration
Bridge the “valley of death” between research and widespread adoption through close collaboration between public and private stakeholders. Public investment often catalyses breakthroughs, while the private sector excels at scaling and deployment.
Using data to lead sustainable growth
In terms of the practical value of the report, the introduction states that investors, decision-makers, and policymakers must be able to identify the causes of productivity growth stagnation in unique contexts around the world, and implement evidence-based approaches that remove barriers, expand productivity growth ceilings, and shift agricultural systems into new domains and opportunities.
One of the answers to this is with using rich streams of data. Such data needs to be not only accurate but also actionable, so it can be used to overcome obstacles that are preventing the growth necessary to secure a sustainable future. Data acquisition has been supported by Google Public Sector and Appnovation, in order to develop a tool in the form of the GAP IQ is a next-generation data intelligence platform. This AI platform is designed to improve decision-making in agriculture.
October 2, 2025
Farmers in many regions are already experiencing longer dry spells, unseasonable heatwaves and erratic weather due to climate change - Copyright AFP/File STR
Innovation in agriculture is falling dangerously behind the demands placed on farmers and agri-food systems. This is the stark headline from a new academic report. The report discusses straining future supplies of critical products such as eggs, cotton, and corn- and soy-based biofuels.
The report, titled Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report, comes from Viginia Tech.
At the centre of the report is total factor productivity (TFP), an efficiency measure that tracks how effectively agricultural inputs such as land, labour, and capital are converted into outputs.
The TFP model organises existing and emerging technologies, practices, and management tactics into four domains, helping investors, policymakers, researchers, and innovators pinpoint what is holding growth back — and where opportunities lie.
TFP growth is widely regarded as a barometer of innovation in agriculture. However, global TFP growth has dropped to just 0.76 percent annually during the past decade, barely a third of the 2 percent target needed to sustainably meet demand by mid-century.
Addressing this problematic TFP growth plateau is essential to keeping food and agricultural products available and affordable, ensuring farmers are profitable, and protecting environmental systems, according to the report’s authors.
This will be challenging since these goals face obstacles in the form of global trade disruptions and declining public research investment slow progress.
Problems with U.S. agriculture
Take the case of the U.S. Here productivity growth of the past decade has fallen behind its competitors. Between 2011-20, U.S. agricultural productivity growth declined, decreasing an average 0.05 percent annually, while China surged ahead with 1.9 percent annual growth, fuelled by double the research and development (R&D) investment of the U.S.
The risk is that without renewed gains, farmers will not be able to make a sustainable living providing vital goods to the economy. To counterbalance this, the report argues for a step-change in public research spending and innovation systems so that farmers have affordable, effective productivity-enhancing tools.
The report offers four recommendations to reinvigorate U.S. growth:
Reignite public R&D investment
Public R&D spending is the cornerstone of sustainable productivity growth. Decades of underinvestment have slowed the pace of discovery. Evidence suggests that pushing out the TFP Growth Frontier will require increasing public agricultural R&D investment by $2.2 billion, comparable to the post–World War II expansion of the U.S. research enterprise.
Close the adoption chasm
Accelerating the adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies, practices, and management tactics across all scales of production is essential to reaching the TFP Growth Frontier. Closing the gap between innovation and adoption requires a revitalized agricultural knowledge and innovation system with coordinated support across financial, infrastructure, and human capital dimensions.
Strengthen the regulatory environment
A modern, efficient, and science-based regulatory framework is critical to reducing innovation bottlenecks and ensuring the timely deployment of productivity-enhancing technologies. For example, the current Coordinated Framework for Biotechnology, established in 1987, has not kept pace with scientific advancements, resulting in prolonged and costly approval processes for genetically engineered traits and crop-protection technologies
Foster public-private collaboration
Bridge the “valley of death” between research and widespread adoption through close collaboration between public and private stakeholders. Public investment often catalyses breakthroughs, while the private sector excels at scaling and deployment.
Using data to lead sustainable growth
In terms of the practical value of the report, the introduction states that investors, decision-makers, and policymakers must be able to identify the causes of productivity growth stagnation in unique contexts around the world, and implement evidence-based approaches that remove barriers, expand productivity growth ceilings, and shift agricultural systems into new domains and opportunities.
One of the answers to this is with using rich streams of data. Such data needs to be not only accurate but also actionable, so it can be used to overcome obstacles that are preventing the growth necessary to secure a sustainable future. Data acquisition has been supported by Google Public Sector and Appnovation, in order to develop a tool in the form of the GAP IQ is a next-generation data intelligence platform. This AI platform is designed to improve decision-making in agriculture.
Written ByDr. Tim Sandle
Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs
Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs
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