Abstract
The ongoing debate over the impact of biofuels on food security makes it difficult for governments to develop clear policies for an industry that can enhance rural employment and help to alleviate rural poverty, but may also reduce food availability and raise food prices. Whilst there have been many studies reporting a wide range of global commodity price impacts arising from the sharp rise in biofuel use over the past decade, there has been less evidence on food security impacts at a local level in developing countries. Where evidence does exist the impact is difficult to assess, often due to different types of production models and feedstocks, but also due to weaknesses in the methodologies and measures of food security used. This paper aims to help address this evidence gap by analysing household survey data from sites close to different types of biofuel operations in Mozambique and Tanzania, using an index that measures key macronutrient and micronutrient deficits at the household level. The results show that those households with employees in medium to large-scale biofuel feedstock operations achieved significantly higher food security outcomes than other households in the same locations. Furthermore, most of the households with better food security outcomes reported an improvement in food security since the biofuel operations had been established and attributed this mainly to increased and more regular income from salaried employment.
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Notes
We define biofuels here as liquid and gel biofuels designed for use in combustion engines, motors and generators, cooking stoves and other light and heat sources, excluding solid biomass such as wood and charcoal.
Brazil is the other major biofuel producer, with a longstanding industry dating back to the 1970s and based on sugar cane as an ethanol feedstock.
Some biofuel operations have assisted in the establishment of local schools and health centres, but their sustainability is then often tied to the profitability of the biofuel enterprise. Biofuel operations may also affect school attendance rates and the ability of households to attend health centres and afford medicines.
The survey originally collected 202 useable returns, but one village was excluded from the analysis as during the survey it became evident that it was too early to assess the impact of the recently established biofuel operation on normal household food consumption patterns.
There is also an ethical issue over the use of anthropometric and biomarker methods for measuring food security, which are often viewed as over-intrusive.
Where the past week’s consumption was deemed to be “untypical”, respondents were asked to report a more normal pattern of weekly food consumption and purchases.
Note that the consumption data was reconciled with the household production, sales and food purchase data to create household food balances for each of the main food items, as a way of cross-checking household responses. For most households and foods, the consumption data more or less balanced the survey data on food purchases and net production (ie own production minus sales), with only small positive or negative balances. Where larger balances were evident at the time of the survey, explanations were sought from the respondent and the data was re-checked and corrected where necessary. Some of the larger balances were explained by losses in storage.
If the analysis was aimed at identifying obesity issues in the population then a maximum capping would not be as relevant, although any excessive surpluses would be apparent from the individual nutrient gaps within the total score.
This reflected focus group responses that energy was the most important nutrient for work and health, followed by protein (muscle strength). Only iron and vitamin A were mentioned, in terms of anaemia and eye health, as important micronutrients across the sites surveyed. It also follows the guidance by Maxwell Smith (1992) that “food security is a multi-objective phenomenon, where the identification and weighting of objectives can only be decided by the food insecure themselves”. However, it is of course recognized that many rural households would not be able to define their specific nutritional priorities.
A more detailed Household Nutrient Deficit Score might incorporate more nutrients and different weightings according to a more detailed assessment of the relative importance of different nutrients in the diet. The simplified methodology used in this analysis captures the important macro and micronutrients in rural areas of Mozambique and Tanzania, where iron and vitamin A deficiency are common problems and households require significant intakes of calories and protein for manual work.
Note that the overall nutrient surplus was calculated before the 50 % cap was imposed for any individual nutrient surplus.
Where the calorie gap accounts for 43 % of the total score, the protein gap 29 % and those for iron and vitamin A at 14 % each.
Household income data was collected during the survey on all farming income, off-farm income and remittances. The household income data also included the value of own production consumed and was expressed in per capita adult equivalent in US$, using the prevailing exchange rates in 2009.
Because food consumption is closely related to income, there is an endogeneity issue in incorporating income within the regression model. Indeed, in running a fifth model with household per capita income included, the biofuel involvement results became insignificant. However, it was notable that the nutrient deficit score for households with biofuel employees fell from a highly significant 27 percentage points below non-involved households in model 3 to a non-significant 5 points below in the fifth model. Whilst, acknowledging the endogeneity issue, this suggests that improved income could be a key reason for the lower nutrient deficits in households with biofuel employees.
Note that this result is similar to that recorded by Schoneveld et al (2011) for a jatropha plantation in Ghana.
Three of the four “unhappy” responses were in outgrower sites concerned that jatropha would affect their food crops and livestock, or that jatropha seed prices were too low to be of any use, whilst the one unhappy response in the estate sites was from a household that had failed to secure employment.
In other words prices did not appear to rise above the levels that would have prevailed according to national and regional supply and demand conditions.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of Siwa Msangi at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Kimberley Pfeifer at Oxfam America, Annie Sugrue at EcoSasa Developments and Anne Bogdanski at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, as well as the researchers at University College Cork, University of Dar es Salaam and Eduardo Mondliane University and the translators who assisted so ably with the survey work. Thanks also to the participation of biofuel company staff, and, most importantly, the families who participated in the household surveys at the various field locations.
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Thornhill, S., Vargyas, E., Fitzgerald, T. et al. Household food security and biofuel feedstock production in rural Mozambique and Tanzania. Food Sec. 8, 953–971 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0603-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0603-9