Prevalent Poverty Incidence and Technological Innovations: Implications for Agricultural Development in West Africa
Prevalent Poverty Incidence and Technological Innovations: Implications for Agricultural Development in West Africa
Olatokunbo Hammed Osinowo1*, Maria Gbemisola Ogunnaike1 and Esther Toluwatope Tolorunju2
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the impact of agricultural innovation technology on poverty and the feedback effect of widespread poverty on agricultural development in West Africa. The study used 25-year (1991-2015) panel data from the Statistics on Public Expenditure for Economic Development, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Penn World Table, and the World Bank’s World Development Indicators. The study’s data set included information on agriculture’s value added (as a percentage of GDP), the headcount ratio of people living in poverty at $1.9 per day, farm mechanization, government agricultural expenditure, irrigation, human capital, and telecommunications technology. The results of this study show that, despite an increasing trend in agricultural technology improvements, poverty is still a regional problem in West Africa. It was noted that the value added by agriculture (as a percentage of GDP) was increasing at a decreasing rate. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that West Africa’s high rate of poverty has a significant linear influence on agricultural development, and that on the other hand, agricultural development significantly contributes to the continent’s effort to eradicate poverty. The study concluded that development of agriculture sector is a crucial first step in creating efficient approaches to poverty alleviation in West Africa. However, the right agricultural innovation technologies, such as irrigation, mechanization, and human capital, must be pursued in order to optimize the effects on poverty reduction.
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November 2022
Vol.38, Iss. 5, Pages 1-396
