Roads and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper assesses the relation between
access to markets and cultivated land in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Making use of a geo-referenced panel over three decades
(1970-2005) during which the road network was significantly
improved, the analysis finds a modest but significant
positive association between increased market accessibility
and local cropland expansion. It also finds that cropland
expansion, in turn, is associated with a small but
significant increase in local gross domestic product. These
results are suggestive of agricultural activities that
develop at the extensive margin, which are mostly to serve
local demand, but are not indicative of commercial
agriculture that serves external markets.