This work estimates agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) change in 44 countries in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region for a period of 59 years, (1961–2019). We measure TFP by calculating the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) which decomposes the changes into technological change (techch), efficiency change (effch), scale efficiency change (sech) and pure efficiency change (pech). The determinants of agricultural total productivity changes are identified and their effects on TFP measured. We discover average annual decline of 0.975 in agriculture TFP largely due to a 0.975 technological regression during the study period. Our analysis of the determinants of TFP changes establishes that factors like land policies, good governance, conflict/war and credit to agriculture, influence TFP changes.