Publication

This paper examines how responsive farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are to changes in incentives. Employing Johansen's multivariate cointegration approach, the author investigates the long-run effect of pricing policies, macroeconomic distortions and certain non-price factors on agricultural production for 10 selected sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1965–99. He finds that estimated supply elasticities tend to lie between 0.2 and 0.5. Among the non-price factors, drought episodes have significantly impaired agricultural growth in six of the sample countries.