In the past couple of decades, bioenergy crops such as jatropha and sugarcane
accounted for most industrial crop expansion, often through foreign-led large-scale
land acquisitions (Schoneveld 2014) (Chap. 4 Vol. 1). Estimates suggest that
jatropha investments accounted “for 31.1% of the total area acquired; with the
largest areas acquired in Madagascar (979,610 ha), Zambia (707,476 ha), and
Ghana (671,951 ha)” (Schoneveld 2014: 39). However, it is unclear how much land
was eventually allocated and converted before the widespread collapse of the sector
(Gasparatos et al. 2015; von Maltitz et al. 2014), with evidence suggesting lower
Fig. 3.5 Production output of major industrial crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Source (FAOSTAT
2019). Note: The secondary y-axis in the right denotes sugarcane production.
Fig. 3.6 Export value of major industrial crops in sub-Saharan Africa. (Source: FAOSAT 2019).
Note: Estimates include raw materials, refined materials and by-products of cocoa, coffee, cotton,
oil palm, rubber, tea, tobacco, vanilla and sugarcane
3 Linking Industrial Crop Production and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa:. . .
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