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COMCEC Agriculture Outlook 2016

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While the agricultural population of the OIC Member Countries was 492 million people

in 1990 with 47.7 percent share in total population, it increased to almost 568 million people,

constituted 35.1 percent of the total OIC population in recent years. The main reason of

decreasing the agricultural population share was that the increase in agricultural population

was lower than the increase in total population throughout the years. This reflects that

worldwide trend of urbanization is also observable for the OIC Member Countries, in general.

In general terms, the share of agricultural population in total population is decreasing in

the OIC as well as in all sub-regions. Within the sub-regions, the share remained higher in the

African Group with 47 percent and the lowest level was Arab Group with 24.2 percent in 2012.

Figure 6. Share of Agricultural Population in the OIC

Source: Calculated by using SESRIC online database

On the other hand, at the individual country level, agricultural population represented

more than 50 percent of the total population in 16 OIC Member Countries. For instance, as of

2012, the share of people dealing with agriculture was over 75 percent in some OIC Countries

such as Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Mozambique. 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.

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1.4.

Employment

As many of the developing countries, agriculture is one of the prominent sectors which

employs significant amount of workers in the OIC. The number of people employed in the

agriculture sector in the OIC Member Countries reached to 240 million in 2013, which

accounts for the 18 percent of world’s agricultural employment. These numbers clearly show

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SESRIC, 2014

47,7

46,1

42,8

39,6

36,3

35,1

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0

200

400

600

800

1.000

1.200

1.400

1.600

1.800

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2012

Percent

Million People

Total OIC Agr. Population

Total OIC Population

Share of Agr. Population