Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
HoSS Working Paper Series,
Stockholm School of Economics, House of Sustainable Society (HoSS)
No 2026-7: The Fruits of Horticulture? Commercial Farming Across Local Economies in Senegal
Christoph Kubitz, Regina Schnars, Renate Hartwig, Céline Zipfel () and Mohamadou Dieye
Additional contact information
Christoph Kubitz: German Institute for Global and Area Studies Hamburg, Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Regina Schnars: German Institute for Global and Area Studies Hamburg, Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Renate Hartwig: RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Céline Zipfel: House of Sustainable Society (HoSS), Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Mohamadou Dieye: ISRA-BAME, Postal: Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract: Can commercial farming stimulate economic development? Across sub-Saharan Africa, large commercial farms are increasingly promoted as engines of rural transformation. Yet whether they generate gains beyond the farm, and how these vary with local conditions, remains unclear. We construct a new spatial census tracing the expansion of large commercial farms in Senegal from 1999 to 2023 and combine it with satellite data, a farm survey, and population censuses. Local economic responses differ substantially across the four settings in which farms operate. In two horticultural regions with investments of similar scale and labor demand, census comparisons show increases in the share of women’s employment in agriculture. Near major urban markets, where commercial farms replace smallholder production, farm expansion increases nighttime-light coverage and is associated with higher household wealth and in-migration. In the less densely populated river valley, where farms expand cultivated land, census estimates point to population growth, but we find no comparable nighttime-light response and weaker evidence of rising wealth. In the other two settings, we find little evidence of local economic change.
Keywords: Agri-business Development; Employment; Structural Transformation
JEL-codes: D04; J21; J43; O13; Q13
Language: English
65 pages, October 25, 2026
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