International Journal of Environmental Chemistry 2019; 3(2): 59-64 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijec doi: 10.11648/j.ijec.20190302.12 ISSN: 2640-1452 (Print); ISSN: 2640-1460 (Online) Estimates of Factors Affecting Economic Growth in the Agricultural Sector in the Development Plan Naftaly Gisore Mose School of Economics, University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya Email address: To cite this article: Naftaly Gisore Mose. Estimates of Factors Affecting Economic Growth in the Agricultural Sector in the Development Plan. International Journal of Environmental Chemistry. Vol. 3, No. 2, 2019, pp. 59-64. doi: 10.11648/j.ijec.20190302.12 Received: March 10, 2019; Accepted: April 29, 2019; Published: December 24, 2019 Abstract: Agricultural sector contribute about 36% of the East African Community’s Gross Domestic Product (World Bank, 2009), 80 per cent of the populace depend on agriculture directly and indirectly for food, employment and income, while about 40 million people in EAC (East African Countries) suffer from hunger and the agricultural sector still retains a lot of untapped potential, specifically for commercial farming. However, economic growth target for agriculture sector can be achieved by stimulating three factors; capital, labor and total productivity of capital and labor through R&D. This study applied panel random effect model on EAC countries data, 2000-2014. Random effects regression results showed that all explanatory variables had a significant and positive relationship with the dependent variable. From the findings the study recommends: R&D to be allocated more funds; more research scientists and agricultural labourers to be employed; R&D based knowledge to be disseminated to the public through publications; firms to train agricultural labourers on how new technologies are being used and also to allocate them duties and responsibilities that match their skills and that agricultural capital costs be subsidised. Keywords: Agricultural Sector Growth, Labour, Capital, Research and Development, EAC, Economic Growth 1. Introduction Economic planning, the process by which key economic decisions in the long-term are made or accomplished by directing and controlling the economic development plans as formulated in the country’s economic plans. Further, Sectoral planning is performed on the quantitative variables influencing economic growth tools, resources and economic potentials of each section, (macro and sector levels), in planning and formulation of in order to achieve development goals at the macro level. However, studies have shown that the development plan tools have significant effect on GDP growth of the agricultural sector and labor productivity in agriculture. Also, key finding is that there is a direct relationship with investment of the public planning [5, 9]. Further, Matahir took a different stand on his study on the role of agriculture on economic growth and how it interplays with other sectors in the economy. Time series Johansen cointegration techniques was employed to investigate the non-causality relationship between agriculture and other economic sectors of Tunis. From their findings, it was posited that, policy makers should see agricultural sectors as vital tools in their analysis of inter-sectorial growth policies [11]. Therefore, the actual investment in the agricultural sector are not limited to the tools of production, machinery and buildings; actually in the agricultural sector part of the earth, trees and livestock units are considered a type of capital. However, share of land and living capital (trees and livestock production) lies in value added of agricultural sector and it is not just the result of employing labor and physical capital. Agriculture is known to be an extended age practice in the third world and developing nations. The importance of agricultural development to socio-economic growth and development in many third world countries is keen on their transition to economic prosperity. Nevertheless, the trend of agriculture in Africa over the past decades has not been favorable [5]. The growth of agriculture in the sixties and seventies has been experiencing a downward trend. Agriculture takes a large share of National Income throughout East Africa. According to FAO and World Bank development Indicators, agriculture accounts for 43% of the total GDP in the region. In Tanzania and Burundi agricultural