A detailed analysis of the productivity performance of the Canadian primary agriculture sector

In contrast to the significant slowdown in aggregate productivity growth in Canada since 2000, the labour productivity performance of the primary agriculture sector has been strong. [...] Business sector growth rates, on the other hand, experienced a significant slowdown in the latter period (1.08 versus 2.24 per cent per year), which implies a widening of the performance gap between the agriculture sector and the Canadian business sector in recent years. [...] While MFP (VA) growth in the business sector slowed significantly in the 2000-2007, declining from 0.46 per cent per year during the 1961-2000 period to -0.30 per cent, MFP (VA) growth in primary agriculture remained practically constant throughout the entire period, 2.14 per cent in 1961-2000 and 1.79 per cent in 2000-2007. [...] One of the main reasons why the primary agriculture sector is still lagging the business sector in terms of capital services intensity seems to be the low use of ICT related capital in the sector. [...] In general, the higher the education level and the greater the experience of workers, the more output they can produce per hour of labour.