AGRICULTURE

From the first cultivation of crops allowing nomadic cultures to settle in villages,
to the recent genetic engineering of seeds, to improved yield and disease resistance,
agriculture reveals a history of productivity gain. An historical techonomic metric
for a given agricultural crop would combine the economic output (measured in
crop quantity, bushels or pounds) with the unit labor required to produce the output
(hours). One can argue that the economic value of a crop differs each year due to
market production, weather conditions, etc., but in the broad techonomic view,
the question is how technology affects productivity. Market choices about how
much will be produced are determined by economic forces that influence how
many acres are planted each year. By tracking labor productivity of a single crop
throughout recent history, one can observe the impact of new technologies on
productivity.