Quantifying Alternative Food Potential of Agricultural Residue in Rural Communities of Sub-Saharan Africa

• Published in: Biomass (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-06, Vol.3 (2), p.138-162
• Main Authors: Ugwoke, Blessing, Tieman, Ross, Mill, Aron, Denkenberger, David, Pearce, Joshua M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agricultural waste; alternative food; existential risk; global catastrophic risk; sub-Saharan Africa
• ISSN: 2673-8783; 2673-8783
• DOI: 10.3390/biomass3020010

African countries have been severely affected by food insecurity such that 54% of the population (73 million people) are acutely food insecure, in crisis or worse. Recent work has found technical potential for feeding humanity during global catastrophes using leaves as stop-gap alternative foods. To determine the potential for adopting agricultural residue (especially crop leaves) as food in food-insecure areas, this study provides a new methodology to quantify the calories available from agricultural residue as alternative foods at the community scale. A case study is performed on thirteen communities in Nigeria to compare national level values to those available in rural communities. Two residue utilization cases were considered, including a pessimistic and an optimistic case for human-edible calories gained. Here, we show that between 3.0 and 13.8 million Gcal are available in Nigeria per year from harvesting agricultural residue as alternative food. This is enough to feed between 3.9 and 18.1 million people per year, covering from 10 to 48% of Nigeria’s current estimated total food deficit.