# Information and Communication Technologies and Agricultural Production: New Evidence from Africa
## 4 Results and Discussion
### Trend of the Dependent and Independent Variables  
Figure 1 presents the trend of crop production index across the 32 different African countries from 2004 to 2019. We observe that most of the countries had an upward trend in the crop production index. Whilst some countries had a fairly stable trend, others had a downward trend. Specifically, Mauritius has been witnessing a decline in its crop production index since the year 2004. There has been a slow rise since 2017. Moreover, countries such as Namibia, Sao Tome and Principle, and Nigeria have seen a fairly flat/stable crop production for almost two decades now. Cabo Verde had a stable trend from 2004 to 2013 and, since then, has had a negative slope (i.e., it has been experiencing a downward trend since 2013). South Africa shows an interesting pattern, where the country experienced a fairly stable rate in the crop production index from 2004 to 2013 and had experienced a steep decline from 2013 to 2015. It also had a steep rise from 2015 to 2017 and has taken a steep decline to 2019. Figure 2 also presents the trend of livestock production index across different African countries from 2004 to 2019. The figure generally depicts a mixture of all trends. Countries such as Congo Democratic Republic, Nigeria, Gabon, and Egypt exhibited a fairly stable trend, whereas Chad, Angola, Ghana, and Togo saw an upward trend in their livestock production index. Countries such as Senegal, Tanzania, and Morocco had also seen an upward trend in their livestock production index. Botswana, Djibouti, and Mali also had an undulating trend. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variables** & **Median** & **Minimum** & **Maximum** & **Mean** &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Std.** \\ **Deviation** \\ \end{tabular} & **Skewness** & **Kurtosis** \\ \hline Fixed telephone & 138,584.00 & 0.00 & 11,852,539.00 & 769,139.15 & 1,783,668.60 & 3.645 & 14.582 \\ subscriptions & 94.67 & 40.18 & 172.26 & 92.0869 & 19.62481 & \(-\)0.005 & 0.907 \\ Livestock production index (2014–2016 = 100) & 96.32 & 49.48 & 134.54 & 93.9289 & 14.98644 & \(-\)0.163 & 0.568 \\ Individuals using the & & & & & & & \\ internet (\% of population) & 9.15 & 0.20 & 74.38 & 16.29 & 17.11 & 1.252 & 0.608 \\ Mobile cellular & 6,450,319.50 & 7745.00 & 184,592,255.00 & 16,729,760.59 & 26,294,996.51 & 3.042 & 11.313 \\ Adjusted net national & & & & & & & \\ income per capita & 1151.36 & 65.07 & 11,114.26 & 1915.03 & 1842.35 & 1.857 & 4.121 \\ (current USD) & & & & & & & \\ Domestic credit to & & & & & & & \\ private sector by banks & 18.91 & 1.07 & 106.26 & 25.89 & 20.00 & 1.501 & 1.856 \\ (\% of GDP) & & & & & & & \\ Rural population (\% of total population) & 56.02 & 10.26 & 90.86 & 53.71 & 17.66 & \(-\)0.165 & \(-\)0.501 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Descriptive statistics (N = 512). Figure 1: Trend of crop production index across different African countries from 2004 to 2019. Regarding the trend of fixed telephone subscriptions as shown in Figure 3, we observe that most of the countries have had a stable trend since 2004. In addition to the stable trends in these countries, it can be seen clearly that the subscriptions are very low. Interestingly, it is only Algeria that recorded an upward trend in fixed telephone subscriptions. Although Egypt exhibited an undulating trend, it is the country that had the highest fixed telephone subscriptions among the 32 African countries under study. Figure 2: Trend of livestock production index across different African countries from 2004 to 2019. The trend of individuals using the internet across the different African countries from 2004 to 2019 exhibited in Figure 4 shows a positive slope. Thus, almost all the countries under study have been increasing their internet patronage since the year 2000. It can be noticed that Burundi and Chad exhibited a fairly stable trend in their internet patronage. Although they are stable, their stability is at the very bottom of the graph (i.e., they have very low internet patronage).