Ghana's Exploration of Biofuels vs. Food Security
Biofuels has emerged as a contentious topic of debate. Is it an innovative source of renewable fuel or does it threaten food security and rural livelihoods? ActionAid Ghana is working with local farmers, women and consumers to learn the reality of the situation and to propose solutions that will balance food needs alongside energy security.
ActionAid interviewed villagers in Gonja land, in northern Ghana. In Makango, where land will be converted to sugarcane for ethanol production, people said they had been told that sugar would be planted in marsh lands that are not suitable for food crops. They had heard that the new production should create employment, but they did not know any details about the nature or numbers of those jobs.
They did know that the marsh lands are the breeding grounds for fish during periodic floods and thus support thriving fishing communities along the river. They raised questions about how fishing would be affected by the increased sugar production and the proposed establishment of an ethanol refinery along the river.
In Alipe, community members raised concerns about the loss of local shea nut trees to jatropha production for biodiesel. Shea nuts are used to produce shea butter, which is used in Ghana and in world markets for soaps and cosmetics. They were initially enthusiastic about the possibilities for new jobs on the plantation. Then the trees started coming down. Those trees are a major source of income for women during the rainy season.
A woman in downtown Wa mixes hot water with crushed shea nuts to produce shea butter. From start to finish, the process will take her three days.
Community member Sanatu Yaw explained, “The shea nuts that I am able to pick during the year helps me to have my children in school, to buy cloth and also to supplement the household’s food needs when the harvest from my husband’s farm runs out. But this year I could not get much because of the trees that have been cut. Now they have destroyed the trees and so we have lost a good source of income forever, yet we have not been paid anything as compensation.”
Alipe villagers raised their concerns about the destruction of the shea nut trees and the loss of grazing lands for their animals with local officials. In that case, community members managed to halt the project. They are discussing new proposals to provide women jobs and to support other income-generating activities. Nevertheless, their traditional livelihoods have been changed forever.
Their stories underline the need for governments to ensure that local communities are fully informed and consulted at the beginning of the projects to allow for discussion of all of the potential consequences. ActionAid is convening a series of regional and national meetings in Ghana to consider the real issues emerging from the plans for biofuels and to develop solutions that work for farmers, investors and community members.
Those solutions in Ghana must contribute to new international policies too. U.S. and European targets for biofuels consumption drive international demand. That demand contributed to rising food prices in 2008. Those markets, and new investments, have slowed in 2009. Now is the time to get those policies right – to lower U.S. and European targets, invest in a balance of crops to support food and energy needs, and advance rural livelihoods and food security.
Learn More About ActionAid's Food Rights Work
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