9
COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2019
In general terms, the share of rural population in total population is decreasing in the OIC aswell
as in all sub-regions. Within the sub-regions, the share remained higher in the African Group
with 58.9 percent and the lowest level was Arab Groupwith 43.7 percent in 2017 (Figure 6).
Figure 6 Share of Rural Population in the OIC
Source: Annex 7 and 8
On the other hand, at the individual country level, rural population representedmore than 50
percent of the total population in 25 OICMember Countries. For instance, as of 2017, the share
of people living in rural areas and engaged in agriculture was over 75 percent in some OIC
Countries such as Chad, Niger and Uganda. 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.3
1.4 Agricultural Employment
Asmany of the developing countries, agriculture is one of the prominent sectorswhich employs
significant amount of workers in the OICmember countries. The number of people employed in
the agricultural sector in the OICmember countries reached 223million in 2016. This accounts
for 25.7 percent of theworld’s agricultural employment.
In 1990, OIC member countries’ agricultural sector employed almost 199 million people. Up to
2016, 23 million agricultural labor was added, and the number of people employed in
agriculture reached 222million 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 ofworld agricultural employment. At the
beginning of the 2000s, the contribution of agricultural sector to total employment decreased to
around 45 and 40 percent in the OIC and the world respectively. After that, the share of
agriculture in the OIC’s total employment is still getting higher than the world. In 2016, the
3 SESRIC, 2014
40
42
44
46
48
50
52
54
56
0
200
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1600
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1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2016 2017
Million People
Total OIC Rural Population Total OIC Population Share of Rural Population
%