News and Analysis • Volume 2 • Number 2 • May 2008
Raising agricultural productivity in Africa: The energy challenge
Africa faces daunting challenges with regard both to the future of agriculture and energy supply. Strategically targeted and used, bioenergy could provide part of the solution.
Agriculture in most African countries is characterised by a dual system combining a subsistence farming sector, revolving around staple food crops such as millet, sorghum, cassava and rice, with an export-oriented sector, producing crops such as cotton, groundnuts, cocoa, and coffee. Over the years, the export sector has come to dominate agricultural production, mobilising most investment in infrastructure, irrigation, fertilisers and credit. Given the relatively high foreign exchange revenues generated by export crops, a number of countries have pursued a policy of using such revenue to import cereals from the international market. As a result – despite the fact that cereals are a staple food in many countries providing from 60 to 80 percent of caloric intake – consumption has been essentially import-dependent. This policy was rendered possible by the low food prices on the international market, driven by surplus production in the US, the EU and other producing countries in Asia.
Overall, the productivity of African agriculture has remained low, both in the food producing and export sector, as a result of a combination of endogenous and exogenous factors. The latter relate, in particular, to the international trade and economic system that allowed producer and export subsidies in industrial countries – estimated at 350 billion USD in 2005. The effect of such subsidies has been an artificial lowering of production costs in Northern countries, rendering African production uncompetitive even in their own domestic markets. African agriculture has stagnated as the result, with human and other productive capacity moving away from the sector. A number of other internal factors have contributed to the stagnation of agriculture in Africa, many having to do with policy and technical obstacles to increasing production and productivity.
The recent hikes in world food prices have thrown many developing countries, especially net food importing countries, into a state of market turbulence with profound social, economic and political implications. In the course of the past two years, import bills have significantly risen, making it extremely difficult for many countries to keep up with the price of cereals. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that the cost of grain imports will increase by 56 percent in 2007/2008, following an already significant rise of 37 percent in 2006/2007. In poor and food-deficient African countries, the cost of cereal imports is expected to soar by 74 percent.
Affected countries and the international community at large are concerned with finding urgent responses to food shortages, or rather, to making food accessible in certain parts of the world. There is, however, need to reconsider the many structural problems, both internal and external, that must be addressed in order to find a long-term solution to the agricultural crisis in Africa. The key challenge is to raise agricultural productivity and production, especially in poor food importing countries in order to reduce import dependence, and thereby reduce vulnerability to market volatility.
Low productive capacity is persistent in the most vulnerable countries. In the Sahel region, within the ten years from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, per capita agricultural output fell by six percent, while total cereal imports grew by 65 percent, with a per capita growth of 32 percent. As a result, food insecurity remains a daily concern for 40 percent of the population, affecting the most vulnerable: women, children, rural households in dry areas, and urban and rural households headed by single women.
Increasing agricultural productivity: How to get there?
A range of strategies and policies for increasing agricultural production and productivity have been considered in the various parts of Africa and by development institutions. In its agriculture come-back report of 2008, the World Bank noted that for agriculture to develop as the basis for economic growth, an agricultural revolution in the productivity of small-scale producers is required. Meanwhile, member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMO) stressed the need to increase production and productivity, while ensuring the sustainability and the preservation of the natural resource in their common agricultural policy. The urgency of increasing productivity was also recognised in the strategic framework for food security in the Sahel by 2015, adopted by the Inter- State Committee to Combat Drought in the Sahel (CILSS) in 2002.
The policy interventions included in the plans and strategies seem to cluster around the improvement of infrastructure to link rural areas with markets, the development of seed banks and greater access to credit. They also involve improving access to water and control of water use; modernising production systems through the introduction of efficient machinery where required; and increasing the use of mineral and organic fertilisers to provide nutrients to the soils and boost yield. The agricultural productive systems in Africa are deficient in all these areas. The following paragraphs focus on measures related to water, machinery and fertilizer considered in existing regional and national plans, and discuss their energy dimension.
i) Access to water remains a great challenge. Overall, it is estimated that only four percent of the total agricultural land in Africa is irrigated, the remaining parts being rain-fed, and therefore subject to climate and rain variability. Since the late 1980s the use of irrigation systems employing small water pumps has expanded, with policies seeking their further development. Presently, the use of motor pumps remains concentrated in the northern and southern parts of Africa, which are the most arid regions - but also the most developed.
ii) The level of mechanisation of African agriculture is extremely low. While recent data is not easily available, in 1994 the World Resources Institute estimated that African agriculture employed a total of 544,757 tractors, compared to 1,125,596 in Latin America and 10,384,879 in Europe. There were 387 agricultural workers per tractor in Africa, compared to 36 in Latin America and 3 in Europe, with a world average of 56 workers per tractor. There are different views as to whether a mechanised model of agriculture is appropriate or not for Africa. Expanding mechanisation does, however, features as a top priority in policies being considered in several countries.
iii) Finally, with respect to nutrients, Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s lowest level of mineral fertilizer use. Only eight kilograms of nutrients are applied per hectare. This represents about ten percent of the world average. It is estimated that Sub-Saharan Africa imports more than 90 percent of its agricultural fertilisers. In 2006, the African Union, meeting at a special summit on fertilisers in Africa, set the objective of increasing fertiliser usage from the current average of eight kg of nutrients per hectare to at least 50 kilograms per hectare by 2015. Again, views diverge as to whether expanding fertiliser use is the right way to go, given all potentially associated environmental, safety and other effects.
In considering the three types of interventions outlined above, it appears that all are directly or indirectly associated with energy use. Therefore, it is critical for policies in these areas to be associated with an effort to secure access to affordable and sustainable sources of energy.
The Energy Challenge in raising agricultural productivity
Energy is an essential aspect of agricultural production. Energy is required directly as a fuel to operate agricultural machinery such as tractors and harvesters as well as for operating irrigation systems and pumps running on electricity, diesel or other sources of energy. Energy is also required in processing and conserving agricultural products, and in transportation and storage. Therefore, energy is a critical factor in adding value in the agricultural sector. Indirect energy use occurs through the production and application of mineral fertilisers and chemicals required to improve crop yields.
Policies being considered within the three categories of interventions described above would imply greater use of energy in the agricultural sector. In Mali, for example, a programme for economic and social development in progress would double the stock of existing agricultural machinery. The number of tractors would increase from an estimated 1,500 tractors to 3,000; motor cultivators from 500 to 1000; and motor pumps from 5,000 to 10,000 by 2012. Similar policy objectives have been set in other African countries.
In the current context of rising oil prices, many of these plans could be jeopardised. Already, oil import bills in several African countries have risen to 50 percent of export earnings, and many countries are struggling just to meet their current energy needs. Accessing energy to fuel the objectives of development of the agricultural sector in Africa therefore represents a major challenge in the current context of high oil prices. As such, the energy crisis is not only a problem in itself; it is also a hurdle in addressing the food crisis in Africa.
Tackling energy in order to boost food production has a long history. Some claim that India managed to solve its food shortage problem and achieve self-sufficiency in food grains partly thanks to a policy to provide farmers with electricity for free, allowing them to irrigate their land. While there are differing views regarding the effectiveness of the policy and concerns over side effects such as overuse of underground water, the policy has been recognised as one of the instruments that led to rapid increase in food production in several Indian states, most notably in the state of Punjab.
Can biofuels be part of the answer?
The agricultural sector is emerging as an important energy consumer, but also as a potential source of energy generated from products and by-products of the agriculture and forestry sectors. The production of energy from agriculture is at the centre of the present boom in bioenergy. Indeed, most biofuels produced today originate in the agricultural sector.
A range of crops produced in Africa could be used to make biofuels – sugar cane, sugar beet, maize, sorghum and cassava for ethanol production – while peanuts, jatropha and palm oil can be used to produce biodiesel. There are many opportunities to generate new sources of energy that can be integrated into existing production patterns within the agro-forestry sector and to meet rural energy needs. According to estimates produced by scientists from the International Energy Agency’s Bioenergy Task 40, Africa’s sustainable bioenergy potential in 2050 is between 317 and 410 Exajoules of energy. This is close to the World Energy Council estimate of global total annual primary energy consumption of 450 EJ in 2007.
Tapping this potential could help countries decrease their heavy oil import dependence. It could also contribute to meeting the energy requirements of the agricultural sector, and the energy needs associated with rural electrification and development objectives. However, there is an inherent challenge in using food crops for energy. African countries are already victims of the effects of diverting the production of cereals such as maize, soya and wheat to produce biofuels in other parts of the world. Therefore, it would make sense to focus on the significant potential of non-food crops such as jatropha, or the vast agricultural and forest residues to generate energy.
Jatropha curcas is one of the feedstocks receiving much attention. The plant is widely available throughout Africa. It has traditionally been used in hedges for protection or delineation of agricultural parcels. It has the ability to grow on poor lands and is drought-resistant, making it well-adapted to conditions in several parts of Africa. Even in the dry regions of Africa, countries such as in Mali, Niger and Senegal, are setting up programmes and initiatives to develop modern forms of bioenergy focusing on jatropha.
In Niger, it is estimated that by integrating jatropha plantations in the agro forestry sector, approximately 953,401 ha – which represents one percent of the territory – could be devoted to jatropha plantations. This would still leave aside protected areas and forest reserves totalling 313,599 ha. In Senegal, a national biofuels programme started in 2006, with the goal of seeks planting 321,000 ha of jatropha at a rate of 1,000 ha per rural community. This would lead to 3,200,000 tonnes of seeds per year by 2012, resulting in 1,190,000,000 gallons of straight jatropha oil, or 1,134,000,000 litres of refined oil that could be used as biodiesel. By 2012, thanks in large part to biofuels, the Senegalese agriculture sector should be a net energy producer. In Mali, several experiments conducted over the past years have shown the potential of using jatropha oil for agricultural production and rural electrification while reaping this plant’s positive environmental and social impacts.
Today, successful experiences exist in several parts of Africa in generating bioenergy from the agricultural system, with the objective of contributing to the energy requirements of agricultural production – powering water pumping systems, running multifunctional platforms, and generating electricity in rural areas. If bioenergy could be developed in ways that do not undermine the already fragile agricultural system, but rather in ways that integrate adequately energy and food crops, it could play an important role in meeting the energy challenge of increasing productivity.
To that effect, African countries would need to formulate clear strategies and policies that take into account the various socio-economic and environmental implications of integrating energy and agriculture production, such that the ultimate outcomes effectively contribute to the range of actions needed for the long-term sustainability of agriculture in Africa.
Moustapha Kamal Gueye is Senior Programme Manager in the Trade, Environment and Natural Resources Programme of ICTSD.