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The productivity of Irish agriculture

Maria Martinez Cillero, Kevin Hanrahan, Michelle McCormack, Fiona Thorne

Research Impact Highlights

Industry impact: A newly established total factor productivity (TFP) index of Irish agriculture, using micro data from the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS) was completed during 2017. This index brings the branch of agricultural economics research in Ireland associated with productivity measurement and decomposition on a par with output in the UK, the US and Australia. Those countries have for a number of years tracked their productivity growth on an annual basis. The analysis of the productivity of Irish agriculture undertaken has identified that, relative to 2010, the TFP of Irish dairy farms has increased by 14% to the end of 2016. From a policy perspective, this research addresses the direction provided for in the recent policy reforms of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which has placed increased emphasis on the importance of productivity measurement and monitoring.

Contribution from non-research stakeholders: Substantial stakeholder involvement contributed to the project via data assumptions and validation of estimated indicators for recent years.

Other contributors and collaborators: Lincoln University, NZ; Massey University, NZ; DairyNZ; Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), UK; OECD; INRA.

Funding: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine funding through the Research Stimulus Fund is gratefully acknowledged.

Researchers: