Effects of Biofuel Investment on Rural Household Food Access and Availability from the Perspective of Major Food Crops: The Case Of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia

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Date

2010-06

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

The currently steady increasing trend in fuel prices and the mismatch between the energy supply a'nd demand situations in Ethiopia is leading the country to be guided by the general direction of energy conservation and renewable energy source utilization. Wide range of biofuel development works are undergoing and one of its indications is the designing of biofuel development and utilization strategy by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Energy. Global Energy Ethiopia Inc. is one of the foreign private investment companies that came to Ethiopia due to investment opportunities created on the investment of biofuels. Then the study was conducted to assess the effects of the investment practices of the Global Energy Ethiopia on the food availability and access of the rural households from the perspective of major food production in Damot Woide Woreda. Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. Data were collected through household survey from 96 rural households and semi-structured interviews are also conducted with the key informant interviews jl:om selected rural farm households, workers of the company and respective government bodies. Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage and cross tabulation were some of the methods used to analyze data. The study identified that; even though the investment practice -had some positive effects like provision of incentives and trainings, and used as coping mechanism for destruction of food crop land by monkeys and apes, it has the overall negative effects on food availability and access in the study area due to the reducing effect on land for major food crops, land and income. So the results suggest that the production of biofuels feedstock based on contract (community) farming system by the private investment company is not sustainable way of biofuels feedstock production in the study area. To this end, promotion of local community owned biofuel development projects for rural economic and energy security is recommended. Key Words: Biofllels, Food availability, Food access

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Keywords

Biofllels, Food availability, Food access

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