Three quarters of the population in Sub Saharan Africa lacks access to modern energy, and relies instead on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. The environment and health implications of the use of biomass fuel has been widely documented in the literature, and has raised the topic of energy access in various policy and development arenas. Still, the impact of energy access on food security at the household level has not been explored in detail; consequently the two sectoral policies remain unaligned. Our aims for this review were to document how lack of access to energy can impact on food security through influence on dietary choices and cooking practices; and how reallocation of household resources from food to energy procurement causes a switch to biomass energy forms of lower grade. We searched the literature for published peer-reviewed articles available through major online publication databases, initially identifying 132 articles but finally reviewing a set of 19 that met our criteria. While most studies suggested that fuelwood scarcity can affect food security through three hypothesised pathways, very few of them provided empirical data to support this argument. Overall, the review found coping measures for woodfuel scarcity to be highly contextual and influenced by geography, household economy and labour availability. Due to the limited number of studies with detailed data, it was not possible to perform a comparative analysis that could support or refute a hypothesis that lack of access to energy can impact on food security. More rigorous studies on this topic are needed which could provide evidence for policy action.

Background: In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the production and use of woodfuel remains an important socio-economic activity with more than 70% of the population relying on woodfuel as their primary household energy source. Despite their socio-economic significance, woodfuel value chains are often viewed negatively due to their association with detrimental health and environmental impacts. However, the lack of sound evidence and limited understanding of the role of contextual factors in influencing the various impacts of woodfuel value chains have prevented the formulation of properly guided policy interventions. Thus the objective of this systematic map is to provide a comprehensive review of the environmental, socio-economic, and health impacts of woodfuel value chains across SSA. Methods:The search strategy for this review map was defined in a peer-reviewed protocol and refined by iterative testing. Search strings were composed of population, intervention, and location terms and combined using Boolean operators. The bibliographic databases Web of Science, Scopus, and CAB Abstracts were used as the main sources of literature for this review, and a total of 4728 results were initially retrieved. Following title and abstract screening, 659 entered full text screening. Critical appraisal of 219 articles led to the exclusion of studies that did not set meet quality criteria for this map, resulting in a final total of 131 articles for inclusion in data extraction and analysis.Results: From the 131 included articles, 152 individual studies were identified during data extraction. Studies came from 26 of the 49 Sub Saharan African countries, with a particular preponderance of articles published in the last 10 years. Critical appraisal found significant weaknesses in the experimental design of woodfuel value chain studies with the exception of health impact studies, which frequently utilized controls or other relevant comparators. Findings suggest that woodfuel value chains have environmental, socioeconomic and health consequences with the frequent presence of trade-offs. The reporting of contextual factors in the studies challenge the widespread perception of deforestation as being directly caused by bush fires, overgrazing and woodcutting. Instead, agricultural expansion (which often includes forest clearing) and pre-existing biophysical factors were the most frequently cited factors in shaping environmental outcomes.

Background: The vast majority of households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) depend on wood energy-comprising firewood and charcoal-for their daily energetic needs. Such consumption trends are expected to remain a common feature of SSA's wood energy production and supply chains, at least in the short-to medium-terms. Notwithstanding its importance, wood energy generally has low priority in SSA national policies. However, the use of wood energy is often considered a key driver of unsustainable management and negative environmental consequences in the humid and dry forests. To date, unsystematic assessments of the socio-economic and environmental consequences of wood energy use have underplayed its significance, thus further hampering policy debates. Therefore, a more balanced approach which considers both demand and supply dynamics is needed. This systematic map aims at providing a comprehensive approach to understanding the role and impacts of wood energy across all regions and aspects in SSA.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the factors determining smallholder farmers’ adaptation strategies to climate change, in the semi‐arid region of Nguru, Nigeria and toward sustainable management of their agricultural production and livelihood.Design/methodology/approachBoth primary and secondary data were used. Primary data were collected by use of structured questionnaires, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Based on the research plan, a total of 250 individual households were randomly selected and interviewed.FindingsThe stepwise multiple linear regression model ran using SPSS revealed nine variables significantly determining the adaptation of climate change strategies. The variables found significant were: agricultural labor force, level of education of the household head, land tenure arrangements, gender of the household head, extension service availability, out‐migration of labor, years of farming experience, household size and availability of farmer to farmer extension. The predicted R value of 0.87, R2 of 0.63, and adjusted R2 of 0.60 indicate high explanatory power of the model as a whole.Originality/valueThe acceptance of the variables included in the model helps very useful policy conclusions for climate change adaptations to be drawn. All these variables, except gender and out‐migration, have a positive influence on climate change adaptation strategies. The influence of agricultural labor force appeared to be strongest, indicating the very important role of this factor in adaptation and the need for promotion of less labour‐intensive, but more remunerative adaptation strategies that would enable smallholder farmers to manage all of their farm plots in an effective way.

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Poverty among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa has been associated with low agricultural productivity emanating from gender yield gaps among other factors. Using data collected from smallholder groundnut producers in Nigeria, we analyzed the gender yield gap by applying the exogenous switching regression (ESR) model and Oaxaca–Blinder (OB) decomposition framework. Results from the two complementary approaches showed a significant gender yield gap in favor of male headed households (MHHs). The main and significant source of the gap was differences in resources/endowments. We found that involving female headed households (FHHs) in prerequisite yield augmenting activities like technology validation trials, testing, and demonstrations is critical in closing the existing yield gap.

This paper decomposes the gender agricultural productivity gap and measures the factors that influence the gap between male and female agricultural plot managers in Mali. The Oaxaca–Blinder approach and the recentred influence function (RIF) decomposition methodology are applied to a nationally representative survey of Mali. The results show that the agricultural productivity of female plot managers is 20.18% lower than that of male plot managers. Additionally, while more than half (56%) of the agricultural productivity gap is influenced by female-specific structural disadvantages, 44% of the gap is due to an endowment effect. Socio-economic characteristics such as the educational level and age of the plot manager, environmental factors and agricultural production practices, i.e., the differential use of inputs (organic or inorganic fertiliser and improved seeds) and the use of hired female workers seem to affect the female-specific structural disadvantages. To reduce or close the gender productivity gap, the underlying causes of female-specific structural disadvantages must be addressed to enable female farmers to obtain the same returns as men. Traditional means of addressing the gender gap, such as providing education for women in rural areas and facilitating rural women’ access to extension services and improved seeds, can mitigate the endowment deficit. This paper highlights the need to develop a better understanding of the factors influencing the structural disadvantages faced by female farmers in Mali that could feed into the development of more effective policies to address the gender gap in agricultural productivity, improving productivity and gender equity and reducing poverty.

Purpose – This paper aims at understanding how smallholder farmers are adapting to drought and what shapes their vulnerabilities and ability to adapt. Considering that their capacity to adapt to climate change has been undermined not only by the natural vulnerabilities due to their geographic location but also by the social context, gender and institution that interact to influence and determine household and individual vulnerability and responses to drought. Design/methodology/approach – Both primary and secondary data were used. Primary data were collected by use of structured questionnaires from 128 male-headed households and 122 female-headed households in eight villages in the Nguru Local Government Area, as well as from key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Findings – Climate change is not a concept recognized by most farmers and does not have standard translation in the local language; farmers believe the term refers to change in weather. Drought and crop failure are causing despair and frustration, and farmers reported that they are struggling to adapt. The resources and support inputs required for responding to climate change and variability are socially differentiated by gender, women’s and men’s responses to drought impacts as well as their access to adaptation resources and support differ significantly. Women are in particular unable to access the favored adaptation strategies promoted by Yobe State Agricultural Development Programme as a government support institution assigned with the responsibility of helping farm households adapt to climate change in ways that will increase their adaptive capacity. Originality/value – These findings are essential for informing policy decisions by ensuring that the experiences of both women and men and the context in which they operate are embedded into policy design.