Original Article Agriculture as a Stimulant for Sustainable Development in ECOWAS Oluwatoyin Matthew, 1 Romanus Osabohien, 1 Ese Urhie, 1 Olabanji Ewetan, 1 Oluwasogo Adediran, 1 Emmanuel Oduntan, 1 and Comfort Olopade 2 Abstract This study utilized secondary data sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI), International Labour Organisation (ILO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) econometric technique was used to analyze the data. Sustainable Devel- opment Goal 1, a proxy for poverty, was used as the dependent variable, while agriculture value added, employment in the agricultural sector, inequality, literacy rate, population growth rate, and gross domestic savings were the explan- atory variables. The study found that both agriculture value added and employment in the agricultural sector were statistically significant in explaining poverty and negatively related to poverty in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) subregion. Therefore, based on the findings, the study recommends that the governments of ECOWAS countries should focus more on agriculture in order to become exporters of cash crops to boost their econ- omies and increase savings that can be used to alleviate and eliminate poverty among the people. Keywords: agriculture; poverty; ECOWAS; sustainable development Introduction To say that poverty and hunger are the two main problems faced by African countries is stating the ob- vious, 1 and the number of people who are wallowing in poverty and hunger has been on the rise since the beginning of the decade. 2 The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) posited in 2016 that globally, 815 million individuals were suffer- ing from hunger due to the high in- cidence of poverty. This marked the first upsurge in the rate of hunger since the food price disaster of 2007– 2008, and is a substantial upsurge from the 777 million who experi- enced under-nourishment in 2015. According to the FAO (2017) report, this setback is due to the discrepancy and the impact of the change in cli- mate in parts of Southeast Asia, West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. 2 The agricultural sector occupies an essential position in the West African subregion and the sector is recog- nized as the heartbeat of the subre- gional economy. This is because its impact cuts across societies at various stages given that the West African economies—in terms of labor force, incomes, and access to food—rely heavily on the sector. Indeed, the Economic Community of West Af- rican States’ (ECOWAS) agricultural sector generates more than 35 per- cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the subregion. 2 However, agricul- ture has largely remained unattrac- tive to the populace, especially for the youth, for reasons that include: low returns on time and mone- tary investments, low investments in the infrastructure necessary for effi- cient value chains, and inadequate social protection. However, there are emerging success stories of changing attitudes among the youth in un- dertaking agriculture as a business. 3 The export of agricultural commod- ities is the main source of ECOWAS external trade, in which about (U.S.) $6 billion is generated, equivalent to approximately 16.3 percent of the tangible and intangible commodities exported from the region. 4.5 Harnessing the agricultural potential in West Africa is essential for the reduction of the rate of poverty and the attainment of sustainable 1 Department of Economics and Development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria. 2 Department of Economics, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria. MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC. • Vol. 12 No. 4 • August 2019 • DOI: 10.1089/sus.2018.0039 Sustainability 215 Downloaded by 54.242.133.186 from www.liebertpub.com at 02/18/22. For personal use only.