Renewable Energy for African Agriculture
Find out more about our open source tool to identify financially viable electrification opportunities in agricultural value chains and state-of-the-art business models to deploy distributed renewables for smallholder agriculture.
Smallholder farmers are the breadbasket of sub-Saharan Africa. They are responsible for 80% of the region’s agricultural output. Despite their critically important role, they are largely neglected, often living outside the reach of critical infrastructure. Electricity, which plays a vital role in agricultural productivity, remains especially elusive. 80% of the region’s rural population are smallholder farmers and only 29% of this population has access to electricity. Accelerating the pace of electrification would require a fundamental shift in how electrification interventions, especially those in rural areas, are designed and implemented. This report seeks to introduce such a paradigm shift. It compiles extensive research conducted by TFE with support from industry partners as part of the Renewable Energy for African Agriculture (RE4AFAGRI) project of the Long Term Joint EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on Renewable Energy, funded by the European Commission.
Download the report and open-source model below. For more information, access our project website here.
Photo credit: Martin Wright / Ashden
Downloads
Business models for electrification of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (~3mb)
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Techno-economic model to assess financial viability of smallholder agriculture electrification (~0mb)