Agricultural Aid and Growth in Sub Saharan Africa: a Review of Empirical Evidence

There are interesting debates on the influence of foreign aid to agriculture on economic growth in Africa. Some scholars have argued that, despite the inflows, majority of rural smallholder farmers in the continent are extremely poor. The precise channels through which foreign aid is to promote sectoral growth has been inadequately understood from the literature. This paper is a systematic literature review on the empirical evidence of the relationship between agricultural aid and growth in Sub Saharan African countries. The Generalized Methods of Moments and the Granger causality test are the main methodological approaches of papers reviewed and the relationship between agricultural aid and productivity growth is positive and quite significant. However, the results demonstrate a weak synergy between the various forms of agricultural aid and growth. The main recommendation is to have a broader conceptual, theoretical or analytical frameworks that clearly define how agricultural aid influences productivity when measured against other influencing factors. Aid is only a catalyst to growth so, governments must invest and provide the necessary infrastructure and a conducive policy environment for increased productivity and growth.