Energy access investment, agricultural profitability, and rural development: time for an integrated approach
Open Access
- 9 November 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
- Vol. 1 (3), 033002
- https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ac3017
Abstract
In rural sub-Saharan Africa, the global poverty hotspot, smallholder farmers account for 80% of agricultural production, with 90% of cropland being exclusively rainfed. A key obstacle to rural development and poverty elimination is the lack of electricity access: less than one in three dwellers have electricity at home. The main barrier to rural electrification is the capital-intensiveness of energy supply infrastructure among sparse communities with low demand density and insecurity of payment. While public governments have largely been unable to channel the required resources, private players are often unwilling to pursue risky and unprofitable household electrification programs. In this context, this perspective argues that the paradigm of rural electrification should be centred around an integrated approach aiming at increasing agricultural productivity and profitability. These bear the necessary potential to enable local income generation and thus also provide an incentive for private energy investment, including in the residential sector. A framework for the integrated approach is proposed and the crucial synergetic role of data modelling and business and policy research to pursue this paradigm is discussed.Keywords
Funding Information
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (963530)
This publication has 45 references indexed in Scilit:
- Making Mechanization Accessible to Smallholder Farmers in Sub-Saharan AfricaEnvironments, 2016
- Enabling private sector investment in microgrid-based rural electrification in developing countries: A reviewRenewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2015
- More Power, Less Cost: Transitioning Up the Solar Energy Ladder from Home Systems to Mini-GridsThe Electricity Journal, 2015
- Yield Gap-Based Poverty Gaps in Rural Sub-Saharan AfricaWorld Development, 2015
- Climate change and agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa: a spatial sample selection modelEuropean Review of Agricultural Economics, 2013
- Financing energy access and off-grid electrification: A review of status, options and challengesRenewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2013
- The Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yields in Sub-Saharan AfricaAmerican Journal of Climate Change, 2012
- Energy solutions in rural Africa: mapping electrification costs of distributed solar and diesel generation versus grid extensionEnvironmental Research Letters, 2011
- The economics of renewable energy expansion in rural Sub-Saharan AfricaEnergy Policy, 2011
- Impact Analysis of Rural Electrification Projects in Sub-Saharan AfricaThe World Bank Research Observer, 2010