Energy Needs in Smallholder Agriculture

Overview

Access to modern energy services and equipment for smallholder farmers could have significant positive impacts on food security, gender empowerment and rural poverty. The publication "Growing Power: Exploring energy needs in smallholder agriculture" by Sarah Best, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), analyses the ‘productive uses’ of energy. In detail, the author discusses energy needs and impacts in smallholder food systems, as well as potential approaches to meeting those demands.

Productive Use of Energy

While other approaches define productive uses of energy in a rathe broad way, this paper defines productive uses of energy as uses that "directly increase incomes or add value to goods and services such as power for milling machine" (p.10). Nontheless, it acknowledges the importance of energy for other uses such as education or health services.

-> Please also see the article "Productive Use of Electricity" for more information on different definitions of productive use, as well as other articles on the "Productive Use Portal".

Smallholder Energy Needs

Quantifying the energy access gap in smallholder-based food systems is challenging, as energy sources and uses are diverse among the millions of small farms, rural enterprises and communities. Nevertheless, some data provide an idea on the scale of the problem, for example for the case of Sub-Saharan Africa:

• 65% of farm power relies on human power, 25% on animal power, only 10& on engines. Compared to other developing regions with engines generating 50% of farm power, this is very low
  
• Only 4% of cropland is irrgated. In South Asia this is 39%, and in East Asia 29%
  
• About 10-20% of grains are lost after harvest, accounting for about US$4bn. Key causes are lack of appropriate storage, processing, cooling equipment
  

Energy needs of smallholders and rural enterprises can be categorized into two main types:

1. energy for transport, and
   
2. energy for production, processing and commercialisation of goods, including diverse activities e.g. pumping water, irrigating crops, drying etc. (see figure below)
   

The paper - as well as most of the available literature - focsues on the latter. Other energy inputs such as indirect energy inputs (e.g. fertilisers) and household energy (e.g. for cooking) are not covered by the paper.

Depending on the level of power needed and the resources availbale locally different energy technologies are required:

• Electrical energy: suitable for powering water pumps, milling machines, fridges
  
• Mechanical energy: suitable for production and processing e.g. for harvesters or tractors
  
• Thermal energy: suitable for different value-adding processes e.g. cooking, drying, cooling
  

The report points out that mechanical and thermal energy are not sufficiently targeted by policymakers and donors.

Regarding areas of energy needs, the paper highlights land preparation, irrigation, processing, storage:

Land preparation

Most land is tilled, ploughed and weeded by aninmal and human power in Sub-Saharan Africa (65% human effort, 25% animals, 10% engines) .

Weeding in particular is time consuming and physically demanding. At the same time, weeding is critical as more than 30% of crops are averagely lost due to weed infestation.

The use of machines could increase yields substantially i.e. while a farm family using human power can cultivate 1.5 hectares per year, the use of animal power would increase that to 4 hectares and the use of tractor power even to 8.

Irrigation

In Sub-Saharan Africa only 4% of land is irrigated. Irrigation would allo farmers to grow one or more crops throughout the year, decreasing farmers' vulnerability.

There are different technical options for irrigation, for more information see e.g. an article on irrgation methods on Agriwaterpedia.info.

Processing

Key processing activities are drying, milling and pressing. Using machinery saves manual labour and increases efficiency. Drying and cooling of ruit and meat is crucial for preserving food and to meet quality standards. There is potential for applying thermal energy technologies such as solar dryers.

Storage

Improved storage is crucial for reducing post-harvest food losses. This includes refrigeration and requires energy inputs.

-> See also the article "Energy within Food and Agricultural Value Chains" and "Refrigeration: Solar Cooling"

Recommendatons for projects promoting "productive use of energy"

Whils these data and information provide a broad overview of energy gaps and needs, it is crucial to align priorities with local settings. Internventions need to be more people-centred, "bottom-up", and better tailored to local contexts - as have shown experiences from energy as well as agricultural mechanization. In specific this means to answer e.g.:

• what do people want energy for?
  
• which types of equipment is used?
  
• what can people afford?
  
• what about the capactiy to run and maintain sytsms?
  

Thus, it is necessary to take a holistic view on smallholders' energy needs beyond the farm gate. Projects at the Energy-Agriculture Nexus should therefore take a demand-led approach, being situated in a wider rural development context (e.g. energy for health clinics vs. energy for farming). The paper provides further recommendations:

1. Value chain analysis can help pinpoint energy needs and opportunities
e.g. to identify bottlenecks to productivity, or pinpoint where energy could have biggest impacts on income, what is most cost-effective etc.

2. Needs assessments should place a strong emphasis on gender
About 43% of the agricultural workforce in developing countries is made up by women. They mostly have less access to productive assets than men. If this access of women would increased, the respective yields could be increased by 20-30%

3. Needs vary hugely across different farming systems
Smallholders are a heterogeneous group, working with diverse farming systems - depending on crops, locality, context, culture and agro-ecological zones. Thus, solutions have to be selected accordingly.

4. 'Modern energy services' is not always the answer to a benefit
Farmers need to weigh up the costs and the benefits of using modern energy services. Sometimes significant improvements can be reached though low-cost, 'traditional' technology e.g. treadle pumps.

Impacts of energy access on smallholders

The paper concludes that robust empirical evidence is scarce, even though it is believed that energy is essential to poverty reduction. Partly this is due to the fact that energy is one out of many inputs to productive processes and it is difficult to untangle its impact from other factors.

Some exceptions are mentioned:

• ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Program), 2002. Rural Electrification and Development in the Philippines: Measuring the Social and Economic Impact: The ESMAP case study finds little impact of electrification on farm income.
  
• Barnes & Binswanger, 1986. Impact of rural electrification and infrastructure on agricultural changes: This cases study from India found that rural electrification increased agricultural productivity through private investment in electric pumps.
  
• Kirubi et al., 2009. Community-based electric micro-grids can contribute to rural development: Evidence from Kenya: A case study on standalone systems in Kenya, where access to resulted in significant improvement in productivity per worker.
  
• Ernst & Young’s attractiveness survey. Africa 2013: Getting down to business: The report points out how poor infrastructure (including electricity and power) hampers countries’ development.
  
• For further case studies on the energy-agriculture nexus see this table.
  

Further research is thus needed, particularly on micro-level evidence. Outcomes need to be monitored over time and should be evaluated in a broader context than income. Further, costs and trade-offs need to be examined as well as how benefits are distributed.

Energy sector approach versus agri-food sector approach

To understand which interventions have been tried by the energy as well as the agri-food sector is crucial to know how to address energy needs in smallholder agriculture.

Energy sector

Energy development is shifting its approach from supply-led and focused on technical and cost issues, to focusing more on users’ needs, local context and sustainable delivery models. Central are modern energy services. The two main types of interventions in energy access initiatives related to the energy-agriculture nexus:

1. Large-scale rural electrification programmes: typically focuses on electricity grid extension, but also include mini-grid and off-grid supply
   
2. Standalone, off-grid energy systems: (mechanical, thermal, electrical) often small-scale; overlap with agricultural mechanization activities

Agri-food sector

Main targets of the agri-food sector are improving farmer livlihoods, agricultural productivity and other sustainability outcomes. Thereby, energy is both an input and an output of farming. Next to modern energy services, the agri-food sector is interested in human and animal power. Strategies of addressing power deficits include increasing supply power as well as reducing the need for it:

1. Agricultural mechanization: to increase productivity, focusing on appropriate technology (i.e. appropriate to the social and economic conditions of the local area, environmentally sustainable, and cost effective). E.g. tractirs, handpowered tools, irrigation
   
2. Sustainable agriculture: concerned with efficient resource use, integrated management of natural resources, environmental protection, avoiding fossil fuel inputs and emissions, sustainable bioenergy, increasing productivity and incomes. E.g. no-till agriculture
   

This graph shows an example of a small-scale, low-input, family managed farming enterprise showing energy flows through the system. Outputs are primarily fresh food for local consumption, although they may also be delivered to local processing companies. Along with human and animal power, some direct energy inputs can be obtained from other sources, such as solar thermal and solar PV systems and biogas produced using a simple anaerobic digester

Cross-sectoral collaboration

Several opportunities for cross-sectoral collaboration emerge:

• Mapping energy needs of smallholders and agri-food chains
  
• appropriate delivery models for low-cost technology and services specific to smallholder needs and context
  
• Linking ‘productive uses’ with sustainable resource management
  
• Addressing bottlenecks to take-up of new technologies or farming practices (capacity, finance, maintenance and repair services, market access, land rights)
  
• Promoting energy literacy among farmer organisations

Download

► Growing Power: Exploring energy needs in smallholder agriculture. IIED, London, Best, S., (2014)

Further Information

• Energy within Food and Agricultural Value Chains
• Utz, V., GIZ, 2011. Modern Energy Services for Modern Agriculture: A Review of Smallholder Farming in Developing Countries
• Powering Agriculture Portal on energypedia
• Productive Use Portal on energypedia