Estimating and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in West Africa: does threshold matter?

Greenhouse gas emissions have an impact on agricultural activity in the West African region, which is largely agrarian. As a result, most of the countries in the region are food insecure, and many people are malnourished. There is a lack of a multidisciplinary perspective that analyzes greenhouse gas emissions and proposes mitigation strategies to help the region contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To mitigate this challenge, this study examined the threshold beyond which agriculture will reduce greenhouse gas (measured by carbon dioxide emissions, methane emissions, and nitrous oxide emissions) in West Africa. The study used a sample of 16 West African nations from the years 2002 to 2018 and the panel threshold estimator for the data analysis. The results showed that agriculture will reduce carbon and nitrous oxide emissions beyond threshold values of 3.287 representing about $26.762 million, and 3.683 representing about $39.766 million, respectively. However, the threshold impact of agriculture on methane emissions in West Africa was insignificant. The results also demonstrated that while there is no causative association between agriculture and methane emissions, there is a unidirectional causation link between carbon emissions and agriculture and nitrous oxide emissions and agriculture, respectively. The study suggested agricultural investments in both traditional high-yielding technology and adaptation are needed to meet the development goal of climate change.