This piece originally appeared on Agri-Pulse.
Editor's note: Agri-Pulse and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs are teaming up to host a monthly column to explore how the U.S. agriculture and food sector can maintain its competitive edge and advance food security in an increasingly integrated and dynamic world.
By Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, farmer, animal scientist, and CEO of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network
Farmer Eduardo Shavhangani was excited when he was allocated his one acre plot at the 25 de Setembro irrigation scheme in Boane, 30km away from Maputo City in Mozambique. However, his excitement soon changed to frustration when he realized how expensive it would be to pump water from the Umbelúzi River to irrigate his cabbage, tomatoes and potato crop. Eduardo spends 1900 Meticais ($31 USD) on 38 litres (10 gallons) of diesel to run the pump irrigating his plot twice per week. The alternative for Eduardo’s scheme is to connect to the power grid and then purchase an electric pump. But this is a farfetched dream because access to electricity is erratic, with frequent blackouts all over Africa, including South Africa, which has half of the entire Sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity.
Africa has an energy famine, accounting for 16% of the world's population and home to 53% of all the world’s population without electricity. Per capita electricity use in Africa averages 181 kwh compared to about 13,000 kwh in the US. With a population of 1.1 billion, Africa has the same electricity coverage as Spain with a population of only 46.8 million. Over 645 million Africans do not have access to electricity – that is almost one in every two people that cannot turn on a light switch or otherwise access power. That is the equivalent of the entire population of the 33 countries in and around western Europe living in the dark. 700 million Africans go without access to clean cooking energy, with 600,000 dying each year from indoor pollution from reliance on biomass. This cannot go on forever. Farmers like Eduardo cannot afford to continue pumping out more money as the income they get from farming diminishes.
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