Institutions and Climate Change Adaptation for Sustainable Agriculture in West Africa

This paper investigates the impact of climate change and institutional quality on agricultural productivity in West Africa, using panel data from several sources from 2000 to 2023 for 14 West African countries. Employing the PCSE as the primary estimation strategy and the FGLS as a robustness check, the analysis accounts for cross-sectional dependence, heteroscedasticity, and slope heterogeneity. The 14 countries were further divided into Sahel and non-Sahel regions to account for the heterogeneous climatic zones. In the Sahel, agricultural productivity is highly sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions and rainfall variability. Institutions significantly mitigate the negative impact of rising temperatures in the region, emphasizing the role of institutions in climate adaptation. In the non-Sahel, however, emissions increase productivity through intensification and mechanization, but institutions mitigate the emission-intensive practices. Under a robustness check, institutions also weaken the reliance on rainfall.