West African agriculture for lobs, nutrition, growth, and climate resilience
West African countries are projected to continue the substantial macroeconomic growth observed in recent decades. Many will enter middle-income status by 2030, and more will do so by 2050. The dynamism observable now in many rural areas will accelerate as towns grow and villages link to them through roads, power, and people who travel. Other localities not well positioned for dynamic change will be increasingly isolated, reflecting and augmenting demographic shifts. Climate change will have a discernible impact on rural West Africa by 2030, and even greater effect as the horizon stretches to 2050 and beyond. Agriculture will grow absolutely but decline as a share of national and regional economies as services and manufacturing increase more rapidly than primary agriculture. How rapidly agriculture’s share declines will depend in large part on how durable the forces are that propelled rapid growth in the first decade of the 21st century, and particularly how commodity prices move in the future.