Mauritania’s agriculture value added rose to 20% of GDP in 2025.

Neither way is good in itself. A higher share can mean the land and sea sectors are growing, or that other industries are shrinking. A lower share can mean the economy is diversifying, or that farm and fish output is falling. The direction therefore says little until the cause is known. The latest figure is 20% of GDP for 2025, up from 19.3% of GDP a year earlier, a rise of 0.62 percentage points. Since 2016 the share has ranged from a low of 19.1% of GDP in 2021 to a high of 23.7% of GDP in 2018, so the current level sits close to the bottom of that range.

Why it matters. About a fifth of Mauritania's output comes from farming, forestry and fishing, so rainfall, pasture and fish catches still carry a large weight in the national accounts. Households that depend on livestock, crops or the catch feel those swings in their incomes directly. The state also feels them in tax receipts and in the food it may need to import in a poor season.