For several years, the Zambian economy relied on the mining sector, which has been affected by fluctuations in commodity prices. The new century enhanced the calls for economic diversification, with the agricultural, manufacturing, and services sectors amongst those pronounced. This article focused on the role of agriculture in supporting the economy, particularly, the effect of agriculture on economic growth. The data analyzed was reviewed for the period 1983–2017. The ARDL Bounds Test was applied in order to meet the said objectives. The ECM results suggest that agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining converge to an equilibrium and affect economic growth at the speed of adjustment of 90.6%, with the effect from agriculture, mining, and services being significant. The impact of agriculture on economic growth was significant in both the short-run and long-run, with coefficient unit effects of 0.428 and 0.342, respectively. The effects are strong because more than two-thirds of the rural population rely on farming, and agriculture has stood as a catalyst for food security. For the effect of agriculture to be much more profound, farmers must be supported with adequate infrastructure, accessibility to markets, farming inputs, better irrigation techniques, which would address the problem of reliance on rain, all of which were inconsistent in the last decade. Additionally, governments must ensure the institutionalization of food processing industries which add more value to the national income.

Empirical evidence proves that agricultural research and development expenditure, and researchers attract high returns though the investments have long gestation periods. Nonetheless, Sub-Saharan Africa invests meagerly in agricultural research and development, and researchers. This study explores the impacts of agricultural research and development expenditures, and researchers on food security in the region and across the sub-regions. The study applies Bootstrapped linear squared dummy variable due to its capacity to handle heterogeneity and missing observations and two-step system generalized method of moments techniques to analyze the data on 24 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000-2016. Data on measures of food security, food production per capita, and food price index are obtained from Food and Agriculture Organization stat, data on population growth is sourced from World Development Indicators, and data on investments in agricultural innovations are extracted from International Food Policy Research Institute. Our findings show that investments in agricultural innovation substantially increase food security through food productivity growth. The full-time equivalent of agricultural researchers' hours is more impactful on food security than agricultural research and development spending. The findings also reveal that the investments are more effective in enhancing food security in Eastern, Southern, and Western African sub-regions while they instead exacerbate the problem of food insecurity in Central Africa. The policy implications are that adequate resources should be channeled into proper agricultural research and development to introduce new crop varieties or significantly improved crops, etc. Moreover, there should be coordination between large and small countries in investments in order for the countries to benefit from the economies of scale.

This study examines the effect of carbon dioxide emissions on economic growth, including investigating whether the CO2-economic growth relationship is dependent on financial development in Nigeria between 1980 and 2020. Due to dwindling economic growth, Nigeria experienced two recessions in one decade. Besides poor growth rates, Nigeria remains a leading emitter of CO2 in the Sub-Saharan region. The motivation for this study derived from the rising level of carbon dioxide emissions in Nigeria which might affect economic growth by dwindling agricultural activities (low output) in some regions, pose health challenges and create a shortage of inputs to agro-allied industries. Hence, this paper attempted to see if there was a causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions, financial development, and economic growth in Nigeria. The relationship between the variables was examined using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag estimation technique (ARDL) estimation method. The framework for this study has its basis in the endogenous growth theory and utilizes the growth and pollution stock model which showed that sustainable economic growth is influenced by a large stock of pollution (CO2 emission). The results of the boundaries test for cointegration showed a long-term relationship between CO2 emissions, economic expansion, financial development, and energy use. According to empirical data, CO2 emissions have little long-term impact on economic growth. However, there is evidence that the interaction of CO2 emissions and financial development promotes economic growth over the long term, suggesting that CO2 emissions only have an economic influence when there is financial development.

Empirical evidence proves that agricultural R&D expenditure and researchers attract high returns though the investments have long-gestation periods. Nonetheless, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) invests meanly in agricultural R&D and researchers. This study explores the impacts of agricultural R&D expenditures and researchers on food security in the region and across the sub-regions. The study applies Bootstrapped LSDV and two-step system GMM techniques to analyze the data on 23–24 SSA countries over the period 2000–2016. Our findings show that investments in agricultural innovation substantially increase food accessibility, availability, and utilization through food productivity growth. Indeed, the investments are more effective in enhancing food utilization than in boosting food availability and accessibility. The findings also reveal that the investments are effective in enhancing food security at least in Southern and Western African sub-regions while they instead exacerbate the problem of food insecurity in Central Africa. The policy implications are adequate resources should be channeled into proper agricultural research and development to introduce new crop varieties or significantly improved crops, etc. There should also be coordination between large and small countries in investments so that the countries can benefit from economies of scale. JEL Codes: A19, Q19, Q18, Q16, I23

Global efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions have been driven by increasingly evident adverse impacts of climate change. Countries are adopting renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and bioenergy, which provide cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels. Investments in renewable energy facilitate the decarbonization of the energy sector, while simultaneously stimulating the economy through job creation, technological advancement, and innovation. This study examines the relationship between renewable energy financing and economic growth in Germany. Annual time series data from 1986 to 2022 and a Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag model were used. The research findings indicate a correlation between renewable energy financing and economic growth. The study indicates that a disturbance in combustible renewable energy and waste will, according to the long-term findings, exert a negative impact of 0.21 on economic growth. In general, financing renewable energy is believed to play a role in Germany’s economic growth. The study recommends that policymakers enhance their funding for colleges and research institutions to develop more viable ways to enhance renewable energy production and adoption.