Enabling Environment and Agriculture in ECOWAS: Implications for Food Security

Abstract

This study examined how enabling environment (proxied by political stability and absence of violence) affect agricultural production and food security in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) sub-region. The essence of this study is to ensure that a conducive enabling environment is put in place to boost agriculture, so as to ensure food security in ECOWAS sub-region. The study employed the fixed and random effects econometric method on the data sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) for the period 2000 to 2018. The findings from the study showed that, when there is an enabling environment for farming, agriculture production increased by 1%, while food security increased by about 3%.These findings imply that proper policies and programmes should be put in place towards ensuring an enabling environment for agricultural activities which will increase production and food security within the ECOWAS sub-region.