The study investigated the effects of trade openness, electricity consumption, education and technology on agricultural value addition growth in Africa. It used data accessed from World Bank Data Base (1971-2011) which were subjected to econometric tests before applying the bound test for cointegration using Autoregressive Distributed Lag model. Results indicated the existence of a steady-state long-run relationship between agricultural value addition and its hypothesized determinants. Finally, technology (0.446) at p < 0.01and electricity consumption (1.695), at p<0.01 were the major long-run determinants of agricultural value addition growth. However technology (Wald stat =-0.551) with p <0.01, electricity (Wald Stat = 0.246) at p<0.01 and education (Wald F Stat =-0.417) with p < 0.01 explained the variation in agricultural value addition in Africa in the short-run. It was recommended that African nations should invest on electricity generation, technology development and skill acquisitions for developing agricultural value chain on the continent .

Price information cum transmission dynamics are driving factors in market integration mechanism.The role of price in transaction decisions is cogent with sustainability of agricultural activities hinged on system effectiveness.Nation targeting food security must have good grasp on functional food commodity pricing system.We designed the study to answer questions on market integration, explore existing relationship and market price responsiveness.Price collected over 52weeks from 24 markets were analysed.Markets were highly integrated however with highest prices in deficit zones. With each market generating information from others by contemporaneous periods, markets clearly had superior price information flow. Commodity association membership, linkage of traders-farm gates, active price seeking behaviours and improved Infrastructure are recommended to enhance market integration, serve price stabilization purpose and promote food affordability.

No abstract

The high reliance of Africa’s GDP on agriculture makes its economic growth susceptible to climate change. The vulnerability of Africa is further worsened by the strong inter-linkage that the agricultural sector has with other productive sectors. To drive policy implications that transform economic performance in Africa, it becomes important to understand the linkages between climate and economy of the region. This paper examines the effects that climate change has on economic performance in sub-Saharan African nations. Based on cross-country panel climatic data that takes account of the absorptive mechanism, it estimates the contribution of climate change to economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The estimator is developed based on the OLS, Fixed Effect, and the Arellano-Bond (1991) Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator. The findings show that high temperature is a significant contributor to worsening economic performance in the SSA region. However, after accounting for the absorptive mechanisms, the relationship is no longer that strong. Specifically, after accounting for initial economic performance, social and political stability in the 2-stage GMM estimation, the estimate for temperature drops by 59%. This result confirms the hypothesis that the negative impact of climate change in the region is not absolute, and that building an overall stable socioeconomic environment in the region could assist in buffering the impact of climate change.

No abstract