Political stability as a factor affecting growth in agricultural sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

The agricultural countries of sub-Saharan Africa remain the least economically advanced region of the world, with the relatively lowest quality of life. The agricultural sector plays a particularly important role in the economies of these countries. However, it is underdeveloped as a result of factors such as inadequate agricultural policy, institutional instability, chronic droughts, epidemics, deterioration of the environment, deteriorating infrastructure and insufficient investment in agricultural research in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of the paper is to examine the impact of political stabilization on the economic growth in these countries. We were also inclined to determine what the interdependences were between political stability and factors important for agricultural activity for both agricultural and non-agricultural sub-Saharan counties in the 1995–2017 period. The methods used in this research included panel models with fixed effects, non-parametric tests and quantile regression. It was found that stabilizing the political situation and lowering the level of conflict risk contributed to the growth of GDP per capita in both agricultural and non-agricultural countries. However, in agricultural countries, it also influenced the modernization of agricultural production methods and a shift in the proportion of agricultural production in the total volume of imports and exports. Furthermore, it was found that political stability contributed to a greater extent to the improvement of GDP per capita in the lowest income countries.