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A lot of attention has been paid to environmental pollution worldwide, due to the increase in anthropogenic activities. Massive investment in non-renewable energy options raises questions regarding environmental sustainability and how to maximize food and non-food output while still preserving a healthy ecosystem. To this end, the present study explores the three-way nexus between economic growth, CO2 emission, and agriculture-value added will accounting for other control variables across a balanced panel of selected African economies from 1997 to 2020. Panel econometrics method of the generalized method of moments (two-step difference GMM) is used to obtain a robust result. From the present study, the environmental pollution model shows that economic growth significantly contributes to environmental pollution in Africa. Additionally, the food price index, capital, and FDI promote pollution, while agricultural production and labor decrease pollution. In the case of the economic growth model, the findings reveal that environmental pollution supports the growth-led pollution hypothesis. Also, the food price index and capital ameliorate economic growth, while foreign direct investments decrease economic growth. Finally, the agricultural production model indicates that economic growth increases agricultural production when the interaction term between GDPC and FDI is included in the model. In summary, the combination of explanatory variables, environmental pollution, capital, and foreign direct investment decreases agricultural production. On the contrary, the food price index and labor promote agricultural production in Africa. Furthermore, the study provides a lot of policies for authorities and stakeholders in Sub-Saharan African countries and other developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of increased renewable energy consumption has been widely debated, and this has become a central energy policy concern for developing and developed countries. The existing literature provides evidence that there is a positive relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in developed economies. However, findings in respect of developing/emerging economies remain inconclusive. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the impact on renewable energy consumption on economic growth by controlling other macroeconomic variables for regions of Sub-Saharan Africa (East, Central and West) covering the 1990–2018 sample period. For this purpose, common correlated effects mean group estimator (CCEMG) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test approach are used to consider both cross-sectional dependency and cross-country heterogeneity across countries. The CCEMG result indicates that an increase in renewable energy consumption led to reduction in economic growth even when the sample is analyzed based on geographical locations as East, West, and Central Africa. Granger causality results validate the feedback hypothesis for only Central Africa; the growth hypothesis is supported for East and West Africa. The empirical results suggest that energy planners, governments, and policy makers must act together to increase the renewable energy consumption share in her energy mix to promote economic growth for regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taro, Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott., is a staple food for many people in Africa. Despite the numerous importance of the crop, it still remains an underutilized crop in Ghana with little information on many aspects of the crop, especially agronomic practices. This experiment was conducted to identify the effect of planting distance on growth and yield of two promising taro accessions. The experiment was laid out using the split-plot design arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications in which accessions (BL/SM/80 and BL/SM/16) were used as main plots and three planting distances (1 m × 1 m, 1 m × 0.75 m, and 1 m × 0.5 m) as subplots. Data were recorded on the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, 20th, 24th, and 28th week after planting (WAP) for growth parameters while yield data were taken at harvest. The results indicated that plant height (63.4 cm), petiole length (44.0 cm), number of leaves (4.7), leaf length (31.7 cm), and width (20.5 cm) were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher in closely spaced plants than widely spaced plants at 4 WAP and 8 WAP for petiole length (70.3 cm) and in the 28th WAP where there was an accession effect on leaf length and number of suckers/plant. The highest corm yield/plant (0.63 kg) and total corm yield/ha (11.7 t/ha) in both accessions were achieved by the medium plant spacing (1 m × 0.75 m) and lower plant spacing (1 m × 0.5 m), respectively. Accession BS/SM/80 recorded the highest total yield/ha of 13.0 t/ha for 1 m × 0.5 m plant spacing. The higher number of suckers (8.1) was recorded by higher spaced plants. From the study, it was seen that growth parameters correlated significantly and positively with yield. It is therefore recommended that farmers in the area and those in similar production areas use a spacing of 1 m × 0.5 m for optimum growth and yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the rising importance of energy transition in the environmental sustainability discussion, it is imperative to understand the roles of sustainable energy innovations and financialization to reach informed inferences for policy formulation. We examined the environmental quality performance in Sub-Sahara Africa using the case of the resource-rich Ghanaian state vis-à-vis the possible moderating influence of green innovations and financial development. The empirical analysis encompassed various estimation issues, including structural breaks, heteroscedasticity, and normality in data structure. We simulated with the dynamic autoregressive-distributed lag technique and confirmed that financialization, resource rents, and economic growth are significant positive determinants of pollutant emissions. However, green innovations decrease the rate of pollution in the nation. Moreover, the interaction between green innovations and financial development improves ecological quality, while that between natural resources and financial development spurs pollution in the ecosystem. Furthermore, causal connections in the series indicated unidirectional causalities from green innovations, financialization, natural resource rents, and economic growth to pollutant emissions. However, the interactive terms between green innovations and financial development and between natural resource rents and financial development are bi-directionally related to ecological pollution. Hence, the study essentially suggests that the net-zero emission agenda of the Paris Accord is achievable from higher investments in green innovations while harnessing the benefits of international financial flows to boost the sustainability capacity of the Sub-Saharan Ghanian economy. [Display omitted] • Moderating aspects of green innovations and financialization in environmental quality examined. • Green innovations significantly abate pollution while financialization is detrimental. • Interactive influence of innovations and financial development abates ecological depletion. • Policy frameworks for net-zero emission are achievable from green innovation perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]