This study assesses the role of agriculture in driving employment and economic development across the fifteen (15) ECOWAS member states. Using the Dynamic Fixed Effects (DFE) estimator within the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PARDL) framework, the analysis explores both the short- and long-run relationships among agricultural output, regional employment, and economic development. The findings reveal a complex relationship: agricultural output, regional employment, their interaction term, industrial value added, and government consumption expenditure exert negative long-run effects on economic development in the region. In contrast, foreign direct investment demonstrates a positive and significant long-run impact on economic development among ECOWAS countries. The results further showed that government consumption expenditure consistently imposes negative effects in both the short and long run, while industrial value added exhibits a strong positive effect on employment and economic development. Although foreign direct investment contributes positively to economic development, it showed limited influence on employment outcomes. Importantly, the positive and significant short-run effect of the interaction between agricultural output and employment suggests that the two variables should not be considered in isolation. Overall, the study concludes that sustainable economic development in ECOWAS requires strengthening agricultural productivity in ways that complement employment creation. Policy measures should therefore prioritize modernizing agricultural systems, improving access to inputs and technology, enhancing rural employment programmes, and encouraging targeted foreign investment that supports agro-industrial value chains.