IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inn/wpaper/2011-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rain, temperature and agricultural production: The impact of climate change in Sub-Sahara Africa, 1961-2009

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Exenberger
  • Andreas Pondorfer

Abstract

This paper is about the effect of climate change on Sub-Sahara African (SSA) agricultural production in a post-colonial setting. While agricultural production certainly is the result of a multi-dimensional process (influenced by diverse branches of politics, by technology, and also by trade patters and violent conflicts, among others), already the partial analysis of the most obvious factors of influence is certainly valuable in the African case. Since agriculture is not only the single most important sector for the greatest majority of people there, but also a low-tech endeavor in Africa, the impact of temperature and particularly rainfall is crucial – to the point of life-threatening crop failure. In sum, we are able to shown that climate change influenced agricultural production in Sub-Sahara Africa in an unfavourable way. When considering traditional and modern inputs (labour, land and livestock, as well as capital and fertilizer, respectively) in a fixed-effects-model, particularly the effect of rainfall is significantly positive and important. Further, by separating countries into a low- and a med-tech group (with respect to modern inputs), different relationships between the standard factors can be revealed, and by refining the specification with respect to regional climatic differences some complexities in these general patterns can be shown.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Exenberger & Andreas Pondorfer, 2011. "Rain, temperature and agricultural production: The impact of climate change in Sub-Sahara Africa, 1961-2009," Working Papers 2011-26, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    • Handle: RePEc:inn:wpaper:2011-26
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.uibk.ac.at/downloads/c4041030/wpaper/2011-26.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Van Zyl & N. Vink & T.I. Fényes, 1987. "Labour‐Related Structural Trends in South African Maize Production," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 1(3), pages 241-258, October.
    2. Mirotchie, Mesfin & Taylor, Daniel B., 1993. "Resource allocation and productivity of cereal state farms in Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 8(3), pages 187-197, March.
    3. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    4. Keith Wiebe & Meredith J. Soule & Clare Narrod & Vincent E. Breneman, 2003. "Resource Quality and Agricultural Productivity: A Multi-Country Comparison," Chapters, in: Keith Wiebe (ed.), Land Quality, Agricultural Productivity, and Food Security, chapter 7, pages 147-165, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Fulginiti, Lilyan E. & Perrin, Richard K. & Yu, Bingxin, 2004. "Institutions and agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 169-180, December.
    6. Frisvold, George & Ingram, Kevin, 1995. "Sources of agricultural productivity growth and stagnation in sub-Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 51-61, October.
    7. Boubacar, Inoussa, 2010. "Agricultural Productivity, Drought, and Economic Growth in Sahel," 2010 Annual Meeting, February 6-9, 2010, Orlando, Florida 56321, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    8. Nkamleu, Guy Blaise, 2008. "Investigating the Sources of Agricultural Growth in Africa: Factor Accumulation, Total Factor Productivity, and Technology Absorption," 2007 Second International Conference, August 20-22, 2007, Accra, Ghana 52108, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    9. Antle, John M, 1983. "Infrastructure and Aggregate Agricultural Productivity: International Evidence," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 609-619, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fenske, James & Kala, Namrata, 2015. "Climate and the slave trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 19-32.
    2. Bannor, Frank & Dikgang, Johane & Gelo, Dambala, 2021. "Is climate variability subversive for agricultural total factor productivity growth? Long-run evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 107590, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kabanda Richard & Peter W. Muriu & Benjamin Maturu, 2018. "Relative Effectiveness of Monetary and Fiscal Policies on Output Stabilization in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rwanda," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(1), pages 220-232, January.
    4. Exenberger Andreas & Pondorfer Andreas, 2013. "Climate Change and the Risk of Mass Violence: Africa in the 21st Century," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(3), pages 381-392, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kahsay, Goytom Abraha & Hansen, Lars Gårn, 2016. "The effect of climate change and adaptation policy on agricultural production in Eastern Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 54-64.
    2. Arega D. Alene, 2010. "Productivity growth and the effects of R&D in African agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(3‐4), pages 223-238, May.
    3. Andreas Exenberger & Andreas Pondorfer & Maik H. Wolters, 2014. "Estimating the impact of climate change on agricultural production: accounting for technology heterogeneity across countries," Working Papers 2014-16, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    4. Fulginiti, Lilyan E. & Perrin, Richard K. & Yu, Bingxin, 2004. "Institutions and agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 169-180, December.
    5. Bruce L. Gardner, 2005. "Causes of rural economic development," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 21-41, January.
    6. Steven Block, 2014. "The Decline and Rise of Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1961," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume IV: Sustainable Growth, pages 13-67, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Chan-Kang, Connie & Pardey, Philip G. & Wood, Stanley & Roseboom, Johannes & Cremers, Marleen, 1999. "Reassessing Productivity Growth In African Agriculture," 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN 21600, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. Lukman O. Oyelami & Nurudeen Afolabi Sofoluwe & Omowumi Monisola Ajeigbe, 2022. "ICT and agricultural sector performance: empirical evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Shittu, Adebayo M. & Obayelu, Oluwakemi A. & Salman, Kabir K., 2014. "Welfare Effects of Policy-induced Rising Food Prices on Farm Households in Nigeria," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170697, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Alene, Arega D., 2009. "Productivity growth and the effects of R&D in African agriculture," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51436, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Eberhardt, Markus & Teal, Francis, 2009. "A Common Factor Approach to Spatial Heterogeneity in Agricultural Productivity Analysis," MPRA Paper 15810, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Barrios, Salvador & Ouattara, Bazoumana & Strobl, Eric, 2008. "The impact of climatic change on agricultural production: Is it different for Africa?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 287-298, August.
    13. Tong, Tingting & Yu, Tun-Hsiang Edward & Cho, Seong-Hoon & Jensen, Kimberly & De La Torre Ugarte, Daniel, 2013. "Evaluating the spatial spillover effects of transportation infrastructure on agricultural output across the United States," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 47-55.
    14. Lachaud, Michee Arnold & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Ludena, Carlos E., 2015. "Agricultural productivity growth in Latin America and the Caribbean and other world regions: An analysis of climatic effects, convergence and catch-up," Working Papers 40, University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    15. Alene, Arega D. & Coulibaly, Ousmane, 2009. "The impact of agricultural research on productivity and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 198-209, April.
    16. Lachaud, Michee & Bravo-Ureta, Boris & Ludena, Carlos, 2015. "Agricultural Productivity Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC): An analysis of Climatic Effects, Convergence, and Catch-up," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211721, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Lindikaya W. Myeki & Yonas T. Bahta & Nicolette Matthews, 2022. "Exploring the Growth of Agricultural Productivity in AFRICA: A Färe-Primont Index Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, August.
    18. Wiebe, Keith D., 2003. "Linking Land Quality, Agricultural Productivity, And Food Security," Agricultural Economic Reports 34073, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Onoja, Anthony, 2021. "Trends and Determinants of Cereal Productivity Growth in Southern Africa Region: A DEA and Cointegration Approach," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315915, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sub-Sahara Africa; agriculture; climate change; panel regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N57 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inn:wpaper:2011-26. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Janette Walde (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fuibkat.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.