New Study Reveals Key Investment Opportunities In Agriculture Sector.

A groundbreaking study launched Monday by Factor[e] Ventures, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Windward Fund, finds that the lack of robust energy services in Africa’s agriculture sector is a fundamental obstacle to the sector’s growth.

Agriculture and agribusiness together are projected to be a US$ 1 trillion industry in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030, and access to sustainable energy should be at the top of the agenda for the sector’s transformation and development.

The new study reveals existing gaps in designing solar-powered irrigation, agro-processing, dairy farming, and cold storage projects in Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenya, lessons learned, and five agriculture-energy opportunities that can attract commercial investors.

With limited energy and technology to grow, harvest and process crops, profits are lower, restricting the potential income for farmers and frustrating the growth of rural communities and the agricultural sector, the report further revealed.

The study affirmed that Solar mini-grids ideal to power rice, maize, cassava processing in Africa.

In Nigeria, a new report by the USAID Power Africa led by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) shows that with little to no market development support, renewable energy mini-grids can power cassava grating, rice milling, and maize or grain flour milling in Nigeria, a country that accounts for 1/3, 1/5, and 1/8 of annual African production of those crops, respectively.

Nigeria has identified cereal grain, cassava, and rice as priority crops for increasing domestic value-addition.

In Nigeria alone, the farmgate value of the three crops annually is already significant–a total of $17.5 billion–and could be much greater with better access to clean, reliable electricity.

Electrifying these value-add activities with mini-grids can cut operating costs and emissions compared to fossil fuel motors, enabling a less than two-year payback for new equipment.

Besides access to credit, other barriers are lack of awareness and education for would-be equipment purchasers, lack of market access to sell increased production volumes, and lack of access to electric equipment locally in the community.