Large-Scale Investment in Biofuel Feedstock Production and Emerging Land Issues in Ghana

The desire to increase global biofuel production and consumption in recent times is fuelling conversion of vast arable lands from food production to the cultivation of biofuel feedstock in some regions of the world. In the case of Ghana; the increasing trends of jatropha cultivation in the transition forest zone and the northern savannah belt of the country for biofuel is raising serious concerns about food security. Evidence exists of some local farmers been displaced from their ancestral farmlands while substantial alternative land is laying idle elsewhere in the country. Following this, there is the need for a better land use policy, proper land use planning and strategic location of the biofuel production fields in Ghana with models that effectively integrate smallholders into large investment projects in a manner that averts displacement of vulnerable local inhabitants and threatens local level food security. Hence we propose out-grower schemes and market integration for smallholders and not just large contiguous nucleus farms.