We discuss recent trends in agricultural productivity in Africa and highlight how technological progress in agriculture has stagnated on the continent. We briefly review the literature that tries to explain this stagnation through the lens of particular constraints to technology adoption. Ultimately, none of these constraints alone can explain these trends. New research highlights pervasive heterogeneity in the gross and net returns to agricultural technologies across Africa. We argue that this heterogeneity makes the adoption process more challenging, limits the scope of many innovations, and contributes to the stagnation in technology use. We conclude with directions for policy and what we feel are still important, unanswered research questions.

中文翻译：

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非洲农业技术

我们讨论了非洲农业生产力的最新趋势，并强调了非洲大陆的农业技术进步是如何停滞不前的。我们简要回顾了试图通过技术采用的特定限制因素来解释这种停滞的文献。归根结底，仅凭这些限制都无法解释这些趋势。新的研究强调了非洲农业技术总回报和净回报普遍存在的异质性。我们认为，这种异质性使采用过程更具挑战性，限制了许多创新的范围，并导致了技术使用的停滞。我们总结了政策方向以及我们认为仍然重要的、未解决的研究问题。