Income Generation from Biofuel: Opportunities and Challenges for Poor Farmers in Southern Africa

Abstract

Increasing rural household income is a primary objective for achieving many development goals, including reducing poverty, hunger, and food insecurity. Despite worries such as, intensive cultivation, bigger farms, deforestation, and less area for growing food, the production of biofuels (i.e from maize, cassava, Jatropha or sugar cane) provides new opportunities for resource-poor, small-scale farmers within the continent. There is, however, a need to strike a balance between food and biofuel production in order to avoid food shortage which will lead to dependency and famine. Access to information on what and how to produce as well as to secure market outlets will significantly influence the level of income generated by these farmers. The state will play a key role in providing physical and institutional infrastructure if small-scale farmers are to benefit from these opportunities.

Key words: Transaction Costs, Biofuels, Physical, Institutional Infrastructures, Agriculture.