SOLAR ELECTRCITY FOR AGRI-FOOD

Executive summary
This report presents analysis, findings and recommendations on the use of decentralised solar photovoltaic (PV) solutions for selected food value chains in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It is a joint publication resulting from the strategic partnership between the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). SELCO Foundation, building on its extensive experience in solar energy-powered agricultural solutions and under the guidance of IRENA and ICIMOD, carried out the required analysis of suitable solar PV solutions for the selected value chains in the local contexts. The communities inhabiting the mountainous areas of the HKH region rely mainly on agriculture and farming for
their food security and livelihoods. Tackling poverty in mountain areas – where poverty rates are usually higher than in the plains – will require greater attention to raising the incomes of these communities. There is also an urgent need to strengthen the resilience of smallholder livelihoods, which face increasingly severe impacts from climate change. Access to reliable and affordable energy is a key infrastructure input to improve agricultural productivity, reduce losses and capture value creation opportunities through processing and enhanced market access. Proven methods have been used to improve processes within the food value chain, where the provision of electricity to operate efficient equipment increases productivity, leading to income generation.

For the buckwheat production process (Figure 1), techno-commercial equipment powered by solar PV has been proposed for the following activities: irrigation, insecticide spraying, threshing and winnowing, grading, de-stoning, hulling, milling (for flour) and packaging.

The assessment and analyses based on the collected data and on the regional knowledge of the partners is the basis for recommending actions to promote the deployment of decentralised solar PV solutions for remote mountain communities in the HKH region. The recommendations are intended to guide the region in planning at the national and sub-national levels to ensure food security and strengthen livelihoods by building resilience in agricultural practices. The goal is to move towards the achievement of practices that, by tapping into renewable resources such as solar PV, allow for mechanisation that brings efficiency and innovation, and is climate resilient.

Introduction

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is home to the three highest mountain ranges in the world – the Hindu Kush, the Karakorum and the Himalayas – and is renowned for its beauty and unique ecological setting. The region is also one of the most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather, with communities residing in harsh living conditions in difficult, hard-to-reach terrain. The region spreads across 3 500 kilometres and spans eight South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. The mountain areas of these eight HKH countries host 9% of the collective population of these countries.2 Poverty and climate risk are two important issues that are decreasing social sustainability in the HKH region and leading to growing disparities across geographies. The region is one of the world’s poorest, and poverty alleviation and eradicating hunger are priority agendas. To achieve these goals, political prioritisation and effort are needed
to bring substantive socio-economic growth to the region. The Human Development Index (HDI) rankings for the eight HKH countries show that, aside from China, which falls under the “high” HDI category, six of the countries are in the “medium” category and still face a long road towards improving the living conditions of their citizens; meanwhile, Afghanistan, with a low HDI, needs to accelerate growth and bring an equitable share of the returns to all its citizens (Table 2) (UNDP, 2020).

The HKH countries are committed to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs 1 and 2, on ending poverty and hunger, respectively, are greatly interlinked and require integrated efforts by governments. Replicable ecosystem processes, banking on sustainable energy solutions that enable various income-generating activities for remote populations, can help address poverty and the climate crisis. Sectoral interdependencies among energy, food, climate and water, and their cross linkages, are significant in fragile mountain regions.

Methodology and approach

Value chain approach
For any livelihood, it is possible to determine the gaps and requirements at every stage if examined through the lens of a value chain approach. In contrast, any solution viewed in isolation ignores the holistic nature of the problem at hand. For agriculture, the broad stages of any value chain that must be studied to map gaps and the interconnectedness of issues are pre-farming, farming, processing and market level. Considering that farming communities face challenges in procuring basic amenities due to the economic gap, value chain mapping can help develop understanding around possible areas of intervention to reduce production costs by increasing the value of products. Energy might not be the only area of intervention, but collaboration with an array of stakeholders can promote solutions by using the ecosystem approach. A major hindrance facing agriculture-based livelihoods is the lack of appropriate farming technologies across the value chain, specifically for small and marginal farmers. Such technologies are either severely lacking in terms of access or completely missing from the value chain of products, services and systems available to farmers (IRENA and SELCO Foundation, 2022). Efficient, need-based productive assets can improve productivity, increase incomes and maintain well-being through removal of drudgery, increased savings and product diversification. Decentralisation presents the opportunity to maintain maximum value at farm and farmer level. This, combined with efforts to strengthen value chains via sustainable technologies, can go a long way towards enhancing the social, financial and environmental sustainability of small and marginal farmers.

As illustrated in Figure 5, a cereal value chain can be mapped in a broad manner. The technologies driven by decentralised renewable energy could be applicable to any cereal commodity, from the input and farm level, to post-harvest processing, to distribution and food processing. The equipment that is mapped needs to be contextualised based on the availability of the technology type and benchmarked for efficiency and solar adaptability.

Applicability of decentralised renewable energy for the livelihoods studied

Inclusive ecosystem approach
Most innovations in the agri-food sector have focused on centralised, industrial-scale set-ups. However, the benefits of such set-ups to rural and marginalised communities have been limited. To offer solutions to these communities, innovations need to be tailored to the rural context and to be decentralised. Such innovations need to be diversified, with a focus not simply on technology but also on ownership models, financial models, supply chain models, and service delivery models, which allow for sustained impact from the design and deployment of the technology. These missing ecosystem factors need to be catalysed and enhanced in order to demonstrate the linkage between sustainable energy and development – thus demonstrating the capability of decentralised energy to transform communities. While the potential to enhance and decentralise agriculture value chains through energy is huge, financing has been a barrier to scaling. All aspects of the ecosystem need to be developed for any solution to be self-sustainable and a long-term investment.

Recommendations

The objective of the study was to assess the scope and potential feasibility of using decentralised renewable energy solutions in selected food value chains in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region. Despite being a significant source of livelihoods for many households in the region, agriculture still relies on traditional practices and often lacks access to modern energy sources. Decentralised solar-powered solutions and energy-efficient machinery have the potential to transform food value chains where mechanisation of processes and increased scale will help communities commercialise their produce and make the leap beyond subsistence farming. This transformational change needs to be brought about while preserving the socio-cultural patterns of the region, ensuring that development is guided along green pathways and sustainable livelihoods and in response to the short- and longterm needs of communities. On another front, mountain regions are exposed to diverse hazards, including “fast-onset” ones such as landslides, floods and avalanches from extreme precipitation and earthquakes from active tectonic plates. These regions and their communities are also exposed to slow-onset hazards, which unfold more gradually but can be equally destructive. Such hazards include increasing temperatures, reduced precipitation, melting glaciers, desertification and changing ecosystems. The impact of the hazard on societies is proportional to their vulnerability and exposure to it. In the HKH region, where societies depend heavily on farming, food production is generally expected to be negatively affected as a result of changes in the timing and duration of monsoons, higher rainfall variability, and increased extreme events, including floods and droughts. It is imperative to build resilience and adaptation to
changes brought about by climatic impacts, including through climate-smart agriculture with improved irrigation, agricultural biodiversity and the use of resilient crop varieties. In addition, the policies and planning of the energy sector must be addressed, considering changing hydrological regimes, extreme climate events and possible ecological impacts (UNEP and Grid-Arendal, 2018).

Snapshot of mechanised solutions at various stages of the food value chains studied

In the study, four food value chains were assessed for processes that could potentially be mechanised and transformed through decentralised renewable energy solutions: buckwheat, yak milk, potato and other vegetables. Table 14 provides a quick snapshot of the proposed solutions powered by solar energy.