Food security impacts of industrial crop expansion in Sub-Sahara Africa (FICESSA)

最近，在撒哈拉以南非洲分配土地用于生产最终用于生物能源、纤维和其他工业加工等非粮食目的的作物的趋势越来越大。这种土地转换通常通过外国直接投资提供资金，并被证明是经济增长的引擎。然而，这种情况经常发生在粮食勉强自给自足的国家，这引发了人们对粮食安全影响的担忧。尽管人们普遍认为，经济作物直接或间接地与粮食生产争夺土地，但评估这种竞争对粮食安全的总体影响并不总是直截了当的。从表面上看，随着农地被转化为工业用地，粮食安全应该会减少。然而，一些不太明显的机制可能导致粮食安全的改善，例如，家庭收入增加可以改善获得粮食的机会，而获得化肥/杀虫剂/灌溉/知识可以提高农业产量。事实上，在SSA由于IC生产引起的土地利用变化与当地/国家粮食安全之间存在着许多复杂的反馈。然而，到目前为止，我们对非洲背景下的这些相互关系的了解是零散和不完整的，几乎没有进行全面的研究。这个跨学科项目旨在提供明确的经验证据，说明新兴市场国家如何与南沙地区的粮食作物争夺土地，以及这种竞争可能以积极或消极的方式影响粮食安全的机制。我们将在多个空间尺度上进行一系列研究，使用各种分析工具来研究过去的动态和探索未来的情景。案例国家包括加纳、马拉维、莫桑比克、塞拉利昂和斯威士兰。我们的联盟由在学术(UT)、应用(RBGK，CSIR)和政策驱动研究(UNU，ODI)方面优势互补的合作伙伴组成。这将使我们的调查结果能够有效地传达给参与(或受)社区发展的不同最终用户，包括政策制定者、当地社区、非政府组织和私营部门。

There is an increasing trend recently to allocate land in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) for the production of crops that are ultimately used for non-food purposes such as bioenergy, fibre and other industrial processes. Such land conversions are often financed through direct foreign investment and are justified as an engine of economic growth. However this often happens in countries that are barely food self-sufficient raising concerns about impacts on food security.While it is well accepted that industrial crops (ICs) compete directly and indirectly for land with food production, it is not always straightforward to assess the overall impacts of this competition on food security. Superficially food security should decrease as agricultural land is converted to ICs. Yet a number of less obvious mechanisms may lead to improvements in food security, e.g. higher household incomes can improve access to food, while access to fertilizers/pesticides/irrigation/knowledge can improve agricultural yields. In fact there are many complex feedbacks between land use change due to IC production and local/national food security in SSA. However, we have a fragmented and incomplete knowledge of these interrelations in African contexts, with few comprehensive studies conducted so far.This interdisciplinary project aims to provide clear empirical evidence of how ICs compete for land with food crops in SSA, and the mechanisms through which this competition can affect food security, whether in a positive or a negative manner. We will undertake a combination of studies at multiple spatial scales using a variety of analytical tools to study past dynamics and explore future scenarios. Case countries include Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Swaziland.Our consortium consists of partners with complementary strengths in academic (UT), applied (RBGK, CSIR) and policy-driven research (UNU, ODI). This will allow the effective communication of our findings to different end-users involved in (or affected by) IC expansion including policy-makers, local communities, NGOs and the private sector.