Revisiting the relationship between state governance, employment, water quality and agricultural productivity in N-11 countries

PurposeThe agriculture sector is crucial for all economies, especially the developing ones. However, agricultural production is influenced by government intervention, which outshines the significant role of good governance indicators in agricultural productivity. In addition to this, the major climate changes also posed various challenges and led to water shortages and yield losses. Thus affecting agricultural production. In this paper, we address the issue by determining the association between state governance and agricultural productivity in N-11 countries.Design/methodology/approachPanel data have been collected from 2000 to 2021 through the Governance Indicator, World Development Indicator and World Bank databases. For data analysis, the researcher has utilized the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimations.FindingsThrough ARDL estimations, it is suggested that corruption (CC), employment in agriculture (EAG), political stability and violence absence (PS), rule of law (RL), regulatory equality (RQ) and water quality (WQ) significantly impact agricultural productivity (AGP) in the long run. In the short run, the impact of RL on AGP has been significant.Research limitations/implicationsThis study follows the method of data collection from secondary sources, which hinders the effectiveness of this study as, on the basis of the respective data, the potential of the researcher to get specific answers to research questions has been affected. Also, this study examines the context of N-11 countries from 2000 to 2021, which exerts a geographical limitation. While exploring the association between state governance and agricultural productivity, this study neglects the internal aspects of implementing state policies in firms.Originality/valueOn practical grounds, the significant association demonstrated by this study encourages agricultural firms to keenly consider state policies to gain sustainable agricultural development. Moreover, this study encourages agricultural firms to efficiently follow governance policies for efficient productivity. The outcomes of the study have shown that agricultural employment and governance infrastructure can efficiently enhance agricultural productivity. Besides, as per the results, water quality also positively impacts agricultural productivity; thus, relevant steps can be taken by the agricultural sector to improve the quality of water.