The economic impact of agricultural projects in a petroleum-exporting country: the case of palm oil in the Republic of Congo

摘要

This paper assesses the economy-wide impact of an agricultural project cultivating oil palms in specific rural areas of the Republic of Congo, an African country with a limited agricultural tradition and dominated by the mineral oil extraction sector. The project expects that all palm oil extracted will be used for domestic food consumption (direct human consumption or food processing). This paper illustrates a methodological framework to perform an impact analysis at local (rural) and supra-local (nationwide) levels and presents some preliminary results. Assessment is carried out by constructing and applying a multi-regional input-output model. The relevant economy-wide impacts are then computed using appropriate multipliers. Results provide evidence of a significant positive impact of the project in terms of both wealth and employment, though they also demonstrate how much the strong dominance of the oil economy within the country may limit cross-sector and cross-region effects.