COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2017
10
Figure 6. Share of Rural Population in the OIC
Source: Annex 8a and b
On the other hand, at the individual country level, rural population represented more than 50
percent of the total population in 16 OIC Member Countries. For instance, as of 2015, the share
of people living in rural areas and engaged in agriculture was over 75 percent in some OIC
Countries such as Chand, Niger, Uganda, Tajikistan, and Guyana. As the majority of their
population depending on agriculture for their livelihood, agriculture sector has a vital
importance for the OIC Member Countries in African Group.4
1.4. Agricultural Employment
As many of the developing countries, agriculture is one of the prominent sectors which
employs significant amount of workers in the OIC member countries. The number of people
employed in the agricultural sector in the OIC member countries reached 221 million in 2015.
This accounts for 23.2 percent of the world’s agricultural employment.
In 1990, OIC member countries’ agricultural sector employed almost 195 million people. Up to
2015, 25 million agricultural labor was added, and the number of people employed in
agriculture reached 220 million people (Figure 7).
Even though agricultural employment is getting higher, the proportion employed in
agriculture is decreasing over time. In 1990 agriculture accounted for almost 52.8 percent of
total employment in the OIC, which is higher than the share of world agricultural employment.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the contribution of agricultural sector to total employment
decreased to around 44 percent both in the OIC and the world. After that, the share of
agriculture in the OIC’s total employment is getting lower than the world. In 2015, the
proportion of agricultural employment is realized as 35.8 percent in the OIC and 29.5 percent
in the world.
4 SESRIC, 2014
63,5 60,8 58,5
56,0 53,3
51,5 50,9
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0
200
400
600
800
1.000
1.200
1.400
1.600
1.800
2.000
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014 2015
Percent Million People
Total OIC Rural Population Total OIC Population Share of Rural Population