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Sources of Productivity Growth During the Transition to Alternative Cropping Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Edward C. Jaenicke
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at The University of Tennessee
Laurie E. Drinkwater
Affiliation:
Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania

Abstract

Traditional measures of productivity growth may not fully account for all sources of growth during the transition from conventional to alternative cropping systems. This paper treats soil quality as part of the production process and incorporates it directly into rotational measures of productivity growth. An application to data from an experimental cropping system in Pennsylvania suggests that both experimental learning and soil-quality improvements were important sources of growth during the system's transition.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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