Abstract
Climate change poses a significant threat to agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This region relies heavily on rain-fed farming, and its capacity to adapt is limited. While global evidence suggests that education enhances resilience, the specific role of education in SSA’s crop production remains unclear. This study examines whether tertiary education enhances resilience by mitigating the effects of climate variability on agricultural output across 28 SSA countries from 2012 to 2022. Using a fixed effects estimator with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors, the results indicate that rising temperatures significantly decrease crop production, whereas increased precipitation has a positive effect. However, tertiary education, both directly and through its interactions with climate variables, appears to have no statistically significant impact, challenging assumptions based on developed economies. Instead, GDP per capita, agricultural land, and population emerge as the main drivers of agricultural output, emphasising the structural factors underlying resilience in the region rather than human capital alone. These findings highlight the limited effectiveness of formal higher education in its current form for adapting agriculture in SSA. The study offers a new perspective by showing that human capital, unless adapted to practical needs and local contexts, is insufficient to protect against climate shocks. It calls for a shift towards vocational, climate-smart, and extension-based education systems, alongside investments in institutions and infrastructure, to fully realise the resilience potential of education in SSA’s agricultural sector.