Industrial crops have been promoted heavily in different parts of Sub-Sahara Africa in the past decades. Their recent expansion has been due to a set of very different policy imperatives related to economic growth, rural development, and energy security.

However, as an agricultural activity, industrial crop production can have substantial trade-offs with food crop production, and ultimately food security. This research project studied the food security outcomes of different operational industrial crop projects/interventions across Sub-Sahara Africa that produce diverse industrial crops such as cotton, cocoa, coffee, jatropha, oil palm, rubber, sugarcane, and tobacco.

This project (FICESSA) is not an intervention/practice in its own right, but a comparative analysis of different interventions/practices related to industrial crop production in Sub-Sahara Africa.

The ultimate aim of the project was to understand how industrial crop production affects food security around operational projects (e.g. plantations, smallholder schemes, hybrid schemes).

A starting point was to identify the different context-specific mechanisms that can link industrial crop production and food security, and how they can mediate the actual food security outcomes.

After understanding these impact pathways we conducted multiple surveys around operational industrial crop projects across the continent. This allowed us to assess empirically the food security outcomes of these projects using a series of different food security indicators.

The ultimate beneficiaries are the local communities that are engaged in (or affected by) industrial crop projects. However, the actual project outputs were geared towards other stakeholders involved in industrial crop production and regulation including the private sector (e.g. agri-business, certification agencies), civil society (e.g. NGOs that promote industrial crops or advocate against their production), and multiple government agencies involved in agricultural production, rural development, food security, and the environment. We conducted a series of workshops with local and/or national stakeholders in Ghana, Malawi and Swaziland to disseminate the findings and seek their feedback.

Initially we identified through an extensive literature review twenty-four distinct mechanisms through which industrial crop production intersects with food security. These mechanisms cover all pillars of food security (i.e. availability, access, utilization, stability, utilization) and include very different impact pathways ranging from land competition, to income generation, improved access to fertilizers/infrastructure/knowledge, female empowerment and ecosystem degradation, among others.

Through a transdisciplinary research process we co-designed the study protocol with different stakeholders interested in industrial crop production (e.g. NGOs, private sector and government agencies). This was done during a 2-day workshop and used a mediated modelling approach. This conceptual work informed the development of the household survey that elicited the actual impacts in the different study sites.

Food security levels were captured for different groups involved in industrial crop production (e.g. plantation workers, smallholders) and not involved in production (e.g. subsistence food farmers). To elicit the food security status we used multiple indicators of observed food security and long-term metrics involving anthropometric measurements (e.g. child stunting, BMI). These were complemented with extensive socioeconomic and agricultural data that allowed for a deeper appreciation of what drives food security for those involved in such project.

Overall we conducted household surveys in 12 operational sites for 9 industrial crops: Guinea (rubber, oil palm), Ghana (cotton, cocoa, sugarcane, oil palm, jatropha), Ethiopia (sugarcane, coffee, khat), Malawi (sugarcane, jatropha, tobacco) and Swaziland (sugarcane, cotton). Between sites we conducted approximately 3,800 household surveys, of which about 2,300 were linked to anthropometric measurements.

Results were analysed using different statistical tools to understand patterns within groups, and establish causality between industrial crop production and food security.

The results suggest that the type, magnitude and mechanism through which industrial crop production intersects with food security, vary substantially between industrial crop projects.

The type and magnitude of the ultimate food security impacts can be positive or negative depending on multiple factors such as the crop, mode of production (e.g. plantation, smallholder-based), production type of engagement (i.e. plantation worker, smallholder), production practices (e.g. irrigation), socioeconomic/environmental context and the institutions related to land acquisitions and industrial crop production, use and trade.

Generally, smallholders involved in industrial crops with mature markets (e.g. oil palm, sugarcane, tobacco) had a better food security status compared to their respective control groups. On the other hand strong food security benefits did not materialize for smallholder growing crops with low value (e.g. jatropha) or in arid conditions (e.g. cotton). Overall the results imply that despite the investment of land/labour in industrial crop production, smallholders benefited from the income and other benefits of industrial crop production related to access to credit, fertilizers, and knowledge, among others.

Paid employment in plantations was shown to have very different food security outcomes, with suggesting positive effects in some projects and negative in others. While it is not possible to delineate easily the reasons behind these very different trends, it seems that in some settings the obtained income is quite low and unstable. This increases the risk/fear of losing their employment and thus their main livelihood activity that allows them to buy food.

However, the above are very broad patterns that need to be understood in the context of the specific food security indicators, study areas and operational characteristics of the projects.

Even though there is a large variability between the food security outcomes of the different interventions, it is possible to identify some common themes across projects regarding enabling factors and constraints.

Engagement in industrial crop production often entails the “sacrifice” of land/agricultural inputs (for smallholders), labour (for plantation workers and smallholders) or both. This means that in most rural contexts where subsistence agriculture of commercial food crop production is the main livelihood activity, household food availability will tend to decline. However, due to income generation through engagement in industrial crop production it is possible to purchase food, offsetting thus the loss in food crop production. Thus it is important to ensure the generation of sufficient and reliable income to avoid any negative food security effects associated with food availability decline.

Stable markets and good employment practices are thus key to achieve this. In particular stable market ensure to a large extent the viability of industrial crop project, whether plantations or smallholder-based schemes. The crucial role of stable markets is manifested by the almost complete collapse of the cotton sector in Ghana and of the jatropha sector pretty much across continent. Loss of markets resulted in the loss of income for involved smallholders and plantation workers, possibly compromising their food security.

Apart from being a source of income, involvement in industrial crop production can enhance the access of industrial crop smallholders to fertlisers and irrigation that can enhance food crop yields. This has been shown to offset in many of the study projects the loss of land and labour for industrial crop production.

In some study areas innovative project structures facilitated the emergence of positive livelihood and food security outcomes. Such examples have been sugarcane projects in Swaziland where farmers consolidated land to create commercial enterprises that sell sugarcane to large sugarcane mills linked to large plantations. All farmers that allocated land to these commercial enterprises have become equal partners and receive steady dividends.

Finally, poor land administration processes often have a strong negative effect on the distributional outcomes and the viability of industrial crop projects. There have been several documented cases (including in some of our study areas) that poor land administration processes led to the acquisition of large tracts of land with little or no compensation to local communities. This has had severe negative effects to local communities. A key underlying factor is the mismatch of formal and informal institutions, as investors often rely on middlemen and traditional authorities to enter potential areas and obtain land. Such inappropriate practices, apart from often having a negative effect to local communities, have also led to the collapse of many industrial crop projects (especially jatropha projects).

A preliminary version of the study protocol has been published Open Access to the leading peer-reviewed journal Scientific Data. The clear explanation of the structure of the survey and the sampling approach can facilitate the replication of this type of studies in other industrial crop contexts of Sub-Sahara Africa and beyond.

This large-scale study shows clearly that industrial crop production can have radically different food security outcomes depending on many context-specific factors such as the crop, mode of production, type of investment, and the institutions/processes that facilitate the adoption and production of industrial crops.

This means that one-size-fits-all approaches are not warranted. In other words it is equally unproductive to either demonize industrial crop production as a threat to food security or seeing it as a silver bullet to solve Sub-Sahara Africa’s rural development and food security problems.

Policy-makers and practitioners that aim to design interventions related to industrial crop production should be aware of these trade-offs and seek to embed practices that can stabilize markets, enhance incomes, respect the land rights of those not involved and promote adequate packages of support to smallholders and large-producers (e.g. agricultural inputs, knowledge, financial incentives). Industrial crop production spans multiple stakeholders, hence coordinated effort would be necessary to ensure the sustainable production of these crops.

Even though environmental impacts were not part of this project, such aspects need to also be considered when establishing industrial crop projects. Such projects can be major drivers of direct and indirect land use change, cause deforestation and land degradation. This can have knock on effects for the provision of ecosystem services that are important for the wellbeing of local communities, including for food security.

Ahmed, A., Campion, B., Gasparatos, A., 2019. Towards a classification of the drivers of jatropha collapse in Ghana elicited from the perceptions of multiple stakeholders. Sustainability Science, In Press https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0568-z

von Maltitz, G.P., Henley, G., Ogg, M., Samboko, P.C., Gasparatos, A., Ahmed, A., Read, M., Engelbrecht, F., 2019. Institutional arrangements of outgrower sugarcane production in southern Africa. Development Southern Africa, In Press

Balde, B., Diawara, M., Rossignoli, C., Gasparatos, A., 2019. Smallholder-based oil palm and rubber production in the Forest Region of Guinea: an exploratory analysis of household food security outcomes. Submitted to Agriculture, 9: 41

Gasparatos, A, von Maltitz, G, Johnson, FX, Romeu-Dalmau, C, Jumbe, C, Ochieng, C, Mudombi, S, Balde, B, Luhanga, D, Nyambane, A, Lopes, P, Jarzebski, M, Willis, KJ, 2018. Survey of local impacts of biofuel crop production and adoption of ethanol stoves in southern Africa. Nature: Scientific Data, 5:180186

Gasparatos, A., Romeu-Dalmau, C., von Maltitz, G., Johnson, F.X., Shackleton, C., Jarzebski, M.P., Jumbe, C., Ochieng, C., Mudombi, S., Nyambane, A., Willis, K.J., 2018. Mechanisms and indicators for assessing the impact of biofuel feedstock production on ecosystem services, Biomass and Bioenergy, 114, 157-173.

Ahmed, A., Kuusaana, E.D., Gasparatos, A., 2018. The role of chiefs in large-scale land acquisitions for jatropha production in Ghana: insights from agrarian political economy. Land Use Policy, 75, 570–582.

Boafo, Y.A., Balde, B., Saito, O., Gasparatos, A., Lam, R.D., Ouedraogo, N., Chamba, E., Moussa, Z.P., 2018. Stakeholder Perceptions of the Impact of Reforms on the Performance and Sustainability of the Cotton Sector in Ghana and Burkina Faso: A Tale of Two Countries. Cogent Food and Agriculture, 4: 1477541

Ahmed, A., Jarzebski, MP, Gasparatos, A., 2018. Using the ecosystem service approach to determine whether jatropha projects were located in marginal lands in Ghana: implications for site selection. Biomass and Bioenergy, 114, 112-124.

Chinangwa, L., Gasparatos, A., Saito, O., 2017. Forest conservation and the private sector in Malawi: The case of Payment for Ecosystem Services schemes in the tobacco and sugarcane sectors. Sustainability Science, 12, 727-746.

Dam Lam, R., Boafo, Y., Degefa, S., Gasparatos, A., Saito, O., 2017. Assessing the food security outcomes of industrial crop expansion in smallholder settings: Insights from cotton production in Northern Ghana and sugarcane production in Central Ethiopia. Sustainability Science, 12, 677-693.

Ahmed, A., Campion, B.B., Gasparatos, A, 2017. Biofuel development in Ghana: Policies of expansion and drivers of failure in the jatropha sector. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 70, 133-149.