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Seoul Journal of Economics
[ Article ]
Seoul Journal of Economics - Vol. 27, No. 3, pp.349-386
ISSN: 1225-0279 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Aug 2014
Received 14 May 2014 Revised 31 Jul 2014 Accepted 01 Aug 2014

Agricultural Sector Development and Structural Transformation: Sub-Saharan Africa versus East Asia

Hee-Sik Kim ; Mthuli Ncube
Senior economist in the Office of Economic Research Institute of the Bank of Korea hkims@bok.or.kr
Chief economist and vice president of the African Development Bank m.ncube@afdb.org

JEL Classification: O13, O14, O43

Abstract

This study examines the nature of economic stagnation in the majority of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and discusses different approaches to structural transformation of their traditional agriculture- based economies. The argument is that the economies and people of SSA countries suffer from a Malthusian stagnation and poverty. This study attributes the Malthusian stagnation to underutilization of the richly endowed land and other agricultural resources, which in turn is due to the prevalence of “communal ownership of land” in rural areas. It argues that the traditional institution has kept agricultural productivity at extremely low levels and prevented a demographic dividend from being created. This study reviews the experiences of East Asian and other countries in their early stage of economic development along with those of SSA to understand the process of an economic takeoff. From this emerges the importance of broad-based agricultural development in enabling a traditional agriculture-based economy to get prepared for the takeoff. In particular, it turns out that internalizing the external effects of agricultural development on human development and its effects on savings is the key. It also finds supportive evidences from panel-data analyses of the dynamic driving forces in different stages of economic development.

Keywords:

Sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural development, Demographic dividend, Communal ownership of land, Industrial development

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the comments of Peter Walkenhorst, Albert Mafusire, Adeleke Salami, Alex M. Mubiru, Alyssa Lubet, David Bloom and other anonymous referees.

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