This paper examines the impact of climatic change on the level of total agricultural
production of Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) and non-Sub-Sahara Africa (NSSA) developing
countries. In doing so it uses a new cross-country panel climatic dataset in an
agricultural production framework. The results show that climate, measured as changes
in country-wide rainfall and temperature, has been a major determinant of agricultural
production in SSA. In contrast, NSSA countries appear not to be affected by climate in
the same manner. Simulations using the estimates suggest that the detrimental changes
in climate since the 1960s can account for a substantial portion of the gap in
agricultural production between SSA and the rest of the developing world
