STRATEGIES FOR LARGE SCALE BIOFUELS AND FOOD PRODUCTION THROUGH SMALL-SCALE FARMERS IN AFRICA

The current global high prices of food and fuels is leading to a serious setback to economic development and poverty reduction efforts for African countries, most of them being net importers of both food and fuels. Over the last decades, there has been repeatedly cry of support from many African countries because of their inability to feed their growing populations. Available information shows that, Africa is the only continent where cereal production per capita was less in 2001 than in 1961. This declining per capita production of staple food crops is in contrast to the development in Asia, where per capita production has increased during the same period. In Asia, countries have implemented green revolutions through small-scale farmers and successfully transformed themselves from food deficit to food secure and exporting economies. The main reason behind this decline in Africa has been that African governments have abandoned the smallholders, and foreign aid to the agricultural sector has declined. Moreover, the African agriculture suffers from unfair competition due to dumping of subsidized cereals by foreign countries and is facing preventive trade barriers.

For some reasons, the African countries have not supported small-holders’ ability to improve productivity or to develop their production for the market, although on paper the same African governments claim that agriculture is the backbone of their economies. In some cases the same governments have facilitated credits, subsidies and inputs for few large-scale farmers mostly foreign who have easy access to policy makers while small-scale farmers are by passed.

 The result of abandoning of small-scale farmers has been low-level farm productivity and declining food and cash crops production. This has lead to poor performance in yields for important staple crops i.e. maize, sorghum, rice and cassava. According to FAO, average yields are very low for all crops. See Table 3.

 Table 3: Average Yields for Agricultural Crops

 The majority of African small holders do not produce enough staples to make them food secure all year round. With the growing food and fuels prices and the emergence of biofuels, African countries need to critically reassess their policies and strategies to urgently modernize agriculture through small holders based efforts. This is in recognition of the fact that Africa has a great but yet untapped rural population with huge – agricultural potential. Making use of this potential would relieve African countries from their present import dependence, and from current food and fuel insecurity

. Africa should learn from Asian countries about improving its food security from small-scale farmers empowerment through better extension services, high yield seed varieties and affordable credits. Africa should also learn from the fact that, Brazil is meeting more than 40 percent of her transport fuel from biofuel and is also exporting some fuel at the same time, using only three percent of her arable land, food prices increase has not been an issue.

 Great Opportunity for Africa

If well explored and utilized, there is a great potential for biofuels development to meet local energy needs, which reduce dependence on imported oil and contribute to the development of the agricultural sector. This potential is not yet fully recognized and appreciated by many African countries. Africa has a comparative advantage in producing sustainable biofuels at prices competitive to the fossil fuels. Africa has also a large rural population and plenty of uncultivated land. It has plenty of arid and semi-arid land that could be used for biofuels production and which is not suitable for food production.

 Empowering Small Scale Farmers and Local Enterprises

Understanding small-scale farmers needs and priorities for improvement is crucial. Local initiatives and the active involvement of targeted communities are essential for the success of agricultural development efforts. Rural development efforts involving production and use of food and biofuels will likely be more sustainable if communities are involved at all stages and organized in groups and if all required inputs are secured and made accessible to farmers. Empowering small-scale farmers will involve various aspects, ranging from training to selection of appropriate crops, to the transfer of technical skills to operate and maintain farm equipment, transfer managerial and entrepreneurial skills. Specific skill needs include information on high yielding species, marketing expertise, building the local base for cooperatives, access to inputs (e.g. seeds, bio-fertilizer, etc), and support across the value chain.

 Agricultural extension services and/or rural community support services will play an important role in supporting farmers to obtain quality seeds, tools, financing and marketing support. When farmers have produced sufficient feed stock, local authorities should create an enabling environment for the local investors to produce biodiesel at the district level for local and export markets.

 Through such empowerment, it is possible to more than double food production from the same land and current farmers in Africa and produce biofuels to meet most local fuels and food needs and even export surplus. Food should be of highest priority, however; biofuels production could contribute to higher food production.

 The building of farmers capacity, transfer of technology and improvements in farming techniques will not only help farmers to gain access to better energy but indeed increase food production, improve capacities to embark on income generation activities and add value to products and empower farmers for greater food and fuel production.