The Role of Economic, Social, and Governance Readiness for Climate Change Adaptation in Improving Agricultural Productivity: Evidence From Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Climate change poses a critical threat to agricultural systems in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), a region characterized by high vulnerability and low adaptive capacity, despite its minimal contribution to global emissions. This study investigates the long‐term impact of climate change adaptation readiness, comprising economic, governance, and social dimensions, on agricultural productivity in SSA. Using panel data from 29 countries (1995–2023) and using total factor productivity (TFP), cereal yield, and agricultural value added as productivity proxies, the analysis employs Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) to address cross‐sectional dependency and heteroskedasticity, and Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) to assess heterogeneous effects across the conditional productivity distribution. The results reveal that the influence of adaptation readiness is multidimensional and contingent on both the productivity measure and its distributional quantile. For TFP, economic and social readiness show significant positive average effects. Yet, quantile analysis indicates economic readiness is vital for low‐productivity systems, whereas governance readiness gains significance only among high‐productivity systems. For cereal yield, all three readiness dimensions exhibit positive average effects, with social readiness demonstrating the strongest consistent impact. Conversely, only economic readiness consistently enhances agricultural value added. Furthermore, the analysis uncovers notable regional heterogeneity in these relationships across SSA sub‐regions. Policymakers suggest moving beyond uniform interventions and designing context‐specific readiness investments that address distinct productivity constraints and the varied needs of agricultural systems across the productivity spectrum. Furthermore, the study findings strongly support achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially for SDGs 2, 13, and 8 in SSA countries.