Africa will need to feed 1.2 billion people
... by 2030 and over 2 billion by 2050, all while coping with unprecedented demographic, socio-economic, environmental, climatic and health transitions. 60% of sub-Saharan African land is used for grazing animals, and many people combine crop farming with livestock production, which is crucial for livelihoods across the continent. Livestock is a valuable asset for rural communities, pulling power for ploughs and transport, creating income diversification via nutrient-rich animal products, as well as being key to reclaiming degraded land and conserving soil integrity and water.
BIO4Africa will contribute to Africa’s food and nutritional security
... combatting poverty, while driving inclusive and sustainable rural development. The project will support the deployment of the bioeconomy in rural Africa via the development of bio-based solutions and value chains with a circular approach to drive the cascading use of local resources and diversify the income of farmers. Our focus is on transferring simple, small-scale, and robust bio-based techs adapted to local biomass, needs and contexts, including green biorefinery, pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonisation, briquetting, pelletising, bio-composites, and bioplastics production.
In doing so we aim to empower farmers to sustainably produce a variety of higher value bio-based products and energy, including animal feed, fertiliser, pollutant absorbents, construction materials, packaging, solid fuel for cooking, and ingredients for biogas production, significantly improving the environmental, economic and social performance of their forage agri-food systems. BIO4Africa has set up four pilot cases with eight testing sites in Uganda, Ghana, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, offering more than 300 farmers and farmer groups, including small dairies and lower-income farmers, women farmer groups and transhumant pastoralists, the opportunity to test them in real productive conditions.