This paper is very much a report on work in progress. It calculates multilateral
Malmquist indices of total factor productivity (TFP) for agriculture in 47 African
countries, for the period 1961±91. The average rate of TFP growth was found to be
1.27 per cent, which is higher than expected, given the pessimistic nature of much of
the literature. The Malmquist TFP index decomposes into technical progress, which
grew at an annual average rate of 0.9 per cent and eciency change, which increased
at 1.15 per cent per annum. Population pressure on the land appears to be a major
explanation of faster growth, as has been suggested by Boserup and Hayami
and Ruttan's induced innovation hypothesis. However, ®tting deterministic and
stochastic frontier models shows that the eect of agricultural R&D on TFP growth is
also important.