Paper short abstract:

This agricultural trade and globalization report provides information on how globalization has affected agricultural trade and economic development of the African countries in the 21st century. Trends of agricultural trade and development in Africa shows an increasing rate during the 21st century.

Paper long abstract:

This research aims particularly to understand how globalization has affected African countries in the aspect of agricultural trade and economic development in the 21st century. This paper utilizes Food and Agricultural Organization Statistics, WorldBank Development Indicators, United Nations Development Programme and KOF Macroeconomic datasets to analyze the effect of globalization on import and export of agricultural commodities and human development with these variables serving as a measure of trade and development respectively. The study covers fifty two countries which provided full data for important variables. Assessing changes within the continent through imports, exports, real gross domestic product per capita, exchange rate and human development index provides evidence of globalization in the 21st century which is also illustrated by the gradual increase in the globalization index.

Although the study points towards the effect of globalization on agricultural trade other economic variables such as real gross domestic product per capita, exchange rate, producer prices and previous year export have significant influence on exportation of agricultural products while importation is also affected by lag of imports and producer prices. The effect of globalization on human development is measured through the effect of agricultural trade on human development index with globalization acting as an instrument.

Drawing on the work of a range of authors on globalization, trade and development the paper will argue that globalization positively impacts on importation and exportation and have consequences for development with significant influence on human development.