Biofuel production in Namibia: Opportunities, threats and the institutional environment for rural development and food security

Project description

In recent years the issue of agro- or biofuels has attracted quite a bit of attention throughout the world. Climate, rural development, food security, biodiversity, rural poverty and agrarian structures, and energy are among the main fields concerned. The market for fuels and energy is huge, and any strong links between it and the agricultural sector would have very serious implications. The question of whether and when agrofuels deserve to be supported by development policy or should be treated as dangerous is, in other words, one that is at once complex and significant.

Based on Namibia (possibly with experiences from South Africa), the projected country working group study will provide the following contributions to the development debate:

1. Come up with an assessment of whether and to what extent agrofuels may contribute to rural poverty reduction and food security SSA, or have precisely the opposite effect, and/or to develop criteria to define the conditions under which the one or other scenario is likely to occur. The study will focus on some of the central goals of rural development: aspects bearing on incomes, distribution, and food security. These will be looked into mainly in the local and national context.
   
   
2. Seek to determine what instruments (policies, regulations, institutions) are available, or would be needed, to manage agrofuel production. The relevant policies and institutions will be assembled from various policy fields (agricultural, land, water, energy, technology, environmental, private-sector, decentralization policies), the aim being to analyze whether or not they address the criteria deemed critical for the development-related assessment and where there may be need for further work.