Natural Resource and Food Import Dependence of Africa: Can Democracy Slowdown Dependence?

Despite Africa's huge agricultural potential and natural resource abundance, the continent is paradoxically the most food import dependent and food unsecured in the world. Based on this paradoxical observation, this study seeks to analyze the effect of natural resources on food import dependence in a panel of 38 sub-Saharan African countries over the period of 2000-2020. The following findings are established. First, natural resource-dependent countries in Africa are associated with over-reliance on food dependence. Second, oil and gas rents significantly accentuate food dependence while mineral rent reduces dependence. We find that this situation is reversible, as liberal, egalitarian, deliberative, and electoral democracies mitigate the effect of natural resources on food import dependence. These findings call for a rethinking of the food policy strategy in Africa. Therefore, we suggest that African governments should reduce their over-reliance on food imports by implementing food import substitution strategies. This can be done by investing part of the revenues from natural resources in agricultural infrastructures and by strengthening institutions, especially democracy.JEL Classification: H11, L66, O55, Q50