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8 | Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) Report
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is only 13%. This share is lowest in the high-income countries, 3%, but can be as high as 60 to 80% in low-income countries (Rodriguez, 1997). Countries with agriculture less than 10% in GDP, mostly the Gulf countries, have scarce natural resources and agriculture has not developed because of it. Countries, such as United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have to import staple products (Table 1-3). But, because they are rich from their oil income, they have no problem importing staple products. They do not really need to increase agricultural production, although in case of political crisis, the food weapon could be used against them. Jordan and Djibouti have scarce natural resources, nor do they have oil wealth. CWANA countries may be classified in three types. Agriculture remains important in countries with agriculture in GDP between 10 and 20%. Nevertheless, most of these countries are dependent upon importing staple products. A large percentage of labor is employed in agriculture and the population density is high compared with agricultural production. This discrepancy is from natural resource scarcity, unequal access to resources and low productivity of labor. Countries such as Algeria and Iran can afford |
imported staple products because they have oil income. Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen do not have oil. The share of agriculture in GDP in Lebanon is between 10 and 20% because agriculture is still important. Farmers have access to land and water and the farms are family owned. Lebanon is not dependent on imports for major staple products. Although population has increased in the last 30 years, migration has maintained the equilibrium between resources and population density. The Caucasus countries, although agriculture is more than 20% of the GDP, are still dependent on imports of major staple food because land tenure is uncertain and not secure (FAO, 2005). Nevertheless, in Tajikistan, agriculture has accounted for one-third of the economic growth since 1997 and has made a major contribution to the fall in rural poverty. 1.1.4.2 National saving and investment The national saving rate induces level investment, otherwise the nation has to borrow (dissaving). National saving was high in Jordan, 24.4% in 2001, from external financial transfers. The saving rate was around 15.4% in Egypt in 2001 and the accumulation of capital as a percentage of |
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