What innovations impact agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Abstract

This study explores innovation characteristics that impact agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two-ways fixed effects approach is applied to a sample of 22 Sub-Saharan African countries from the 1996 to 2014 period. The results show that, among yield-increasing innovations, fertilizer's constituents have a mitigated impact on agricultural productivity. Whereas, a one-point increase in the application of pesticides and irrigation practice will increase agricultural productivity by 0.08 and 0.0005, respectively. The profit-enhancing innovation includes crop diversification, and one point increase of this factor will augment agricultural productivity by 0.017 and 0.03, with respect to country specific effects. As regard cost-reducing innovations (labor-saving), only tractors and harvesting machines are found to have a significant and positive effect on agricultural productivity. So then, implications for public policies are discussed accordingly.