Bioenergy and Food

Security Projects

Integrating Food and Energy Production:

FAO’s Sustainable Bioenergy Package

Andrea Rossi

Maputo, 19 March 2013

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1. Bioenergy and food security: definitions

2. Bioenergy and food security: opportunities

and risks

3. FAO’s Sustainable Bioenergy Package

4. BEFS Assessment of the Sustainable

Bioenergy Potential

5. Integrated Food-Energy Systems (IFES)

6. GBEP Sustainability Indicators for Bioenergy

7. Concluding remarks

Outline

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Definition of bioenergy

Energy derived from biofuels, which are fuels produced

directly or indirectly from biomass.

There are 3 types of biofuels:

• liquid biofuels, e.g. bioethanol and biodiesel

• gaseous biofuels, e.g. biogas; and

• soild biofuels, e.g. charcoal, wood pellets,

briquettes

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Food security: definition

“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have

physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and

nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food

preferences for an active and healthy life”.

(World Food Summit, 1996, Action Plan)

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Food security: dimensions

• Availability: availability of sufficient quantities of food of

appropriate quality

• Access: access by individuals to adequate resources for

acquiring appropriate foods for a nutritious diet

• Utilization: utilization of food (through adequate diet,

clean water, sanitation and health care) to reach a status

of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are

met

• Stability: availability of and access to adequate food at all

times

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Bioenergy and food security: links

• Bioenergy development can lead to both positive

and negative environmental and socio-economic

impacts

• These impacts can affect the four dimensions of

food security

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Factors determining the impacts of bioenergy development

• Local environmental and socio-economic conditions and

interaction with other sectors/activities

• the regional, national and local policy environment

• the types of feedstocks, processing technologies and

biofuels

• the scale and ownership of production

• the types of business models along the bioenergy supply

chain

• the way production (especially feedstock production) is

managed

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Bioenergy and food security: opportunities

• Potential contribution to agricultural and rural

development in a climate-smart way, with positive

effects on food and energy security

• Creation of new income-generating opportunities,

with positive effects on people’s access to food

• Potential improvement in access to modern energy

services, with positive effects on food utilization

• Stimulation of investments in agriculture, with

positive effects on food availability

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Bioenergy and food security: risks

• Potential diversion of crops and/or land, water and

inputs from food to energy production, with negative

repercussions on food availability

• Potential land-use changes, with loss or deterioration of

biodiversity and ecosystems, which provide essential

resources and services for food security

• Potential decrease in soil quality and water availability

and quality, with negative repercussions on food

availability, stability and utilization

• Potential displacement of local communities, with

negative repercussions on their livelihoods and food

security

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FAO Sustainable Bioenergy Package

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BEFS Assessment

of the Sustainable Bioenergy Potential

BEFS Analytical Framework:

• Diagnostic Analysis: trends in domestic

agricultural markets and food security

• Natural Resource Analysis: land, water and

residues

• Techno-economic and Environmental Analysis:

viable technologies, productions costs, smallholder

inclusion, GHG balance

• Socio-economic Analysis: economy-wide and

household effects

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On-going work: BEFS Rapid Appraisal

• The BEFS RA will allow countries to get an initial

indication of their sustainable bioenergy potential

and of the associated opportunities, risks and

trade-offs

• The BEFS RA will provide a set of easily applicable

methodologies and user-friendly tools to address

key questions related to:

• Sustainable feedstock potential

• Techno-economic viability

• Socio-economic sustainability

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FAO Sustainable Bioenergy Package

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What are Integrated Food-Energy Systems (IFES)?

• Agricultural systems that combine food and energy

production to ensure local energy and food security

• Increased resource efficiency through integration

• Involvement of smallholders

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IFES Type 1:

• Combination on the same land or landscape

• Maximizing land use efficiency

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IFES Type 2:

• Multiple use and recycling of all products

and by-products

• Maximizing biomass use efficiency

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Development of an analytical framework to assess

Integrated Food-Energy Systems

• IFES provide many advantages compared to

conventional farming systems, yet also raise

considerable challenges

• These challenges are mainly related to capacity

building, knowledge transfer and finance and need

solid policy support to be addressed appropriately

• Yet the scientific basis, which is essential to inform

decision-makers and to secure such support, is still

relatively scarce. The evidence base is simply missing

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IFES Analytical Framework

• Analyzing the socio-cultural context: Understanding

the farmers’ perspective through Rapid Rural Appraisal

methodologies

• Assessing sustainability: Strengthening the evidence

base through an indicator-based framework

• Assessing replicability: Analyzing the enabling

environment through a comprehensive checklist

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FAO Sustainable Bioenergy Package

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The Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP)

• Established in 2006 by the G8

• Works towards Consensus

• All types of Bioenergy

• Facilitates Sust. Dev. of bioenergy

• Today 36 Ps and 37 Os

24 Sustainability Indicators agreed by 23 countries & 13 international organizations involving a total of 45 countries and 23 int. organizations (Ps & Os)

PILLARS

Environmental Social Economic

INDICATORS

1. Life-cycle GHG emissions 9. Allocation and tenure of land for

new bioenergy production

17. Productivity

2. Soil quality 10. Price and supply of a national

food basket

18. Net energy balance

3. Harvest levels of wood resources 11. Change in income 19. Gross value added

4. Emissions of non-GHG air

pollutants, including air toxics

12. Jobs in the bioenergy sector

20. Change in consumption of fossil

fuels and traditional use of biomass

5. Water use and efficiency 13. Change in unpaid time spent by

women and children collecting biomass

21. Training and re-qualification of the

workforce

6. Water quality 14. Bioenergy used to expand

access to modern energy services

22. Energy diversity

7. Biological diversity in the landscape 15. Change in mortality and burden of

disease attributable to indoor smoke

23. Infrastructure and logistics for

distribution of bioenergy

8. Land use and land-use change

related to bioenergy feedstock

production

16. Incidence of occupational injury,

illness and fatalities

24. Capacity and flexibility of use of

bioenergy

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Concluding remarks

• Modern bioenergy development can create both

opportunities and risks for food security

• In order to ensure that modern bioenergy development is

sustainable and that it fosters energy and food security, it is

essential to:

Formulate or review bioenergy policies and strategies

based on a thorough assessment of the domestic

sustainable bioenergy potential, e.g. using BEFS

Prevent and manage risks, e.g. through the promotion of

sustainable IFES

Monitor, evaluate and respond to impacts, e.g. through

the GBEP indicators

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FAO’s support to Southeastern African Countries

• How could FAO further inform and support

sustainable bioenergy development in the region?

• What kind of technical assistance is needed?

• How could this assistance be delivered?

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THANK YOU!

http://www.fao.org/energy

PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT US:

olivier.dubois@fao.org

andrea.rossi@fao.org

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Welfare impacts of food price increases

In the short run:

• Negative impact on net-importing countries and net-

consuming households

• Positive impact on net-exporting countries and net-

producing households

In the medium/long run:

• Potential behavioural responses by consumers, e.g.

switch to less costly foods

• Potential agricultural supply response