Measuring Impacts and Enabling Investments in Energy-Smart Agrifood Chains

“Measuring Impacts and Enabling Investments in Energy-Smart Agrifood Chains” was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with the GIZ, under the global initiative Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development (PAEGC), and presents the second study of the joint project “Investing in Energy Sustainable Technologies in the Agrifood Sector” (INVESTA). The study aims to measure impacts and enable investments in energy-smart agrifood chains by identifying the main barriers impeding the full deployment of clean energy technologies in four case study countries and recommending possible solutions to overcome them. The study shows how to apply the methodological approach for a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of energy technologies developed in the first INVESTA study “Costs and Benefits of Clean Energy technologies in the Milk, Vegetable and Rice Value Chains” at country level. The methodology provides guidelines for a sound and comprehensive cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of clean energy interventions in agrifood value chains and compares the economic net benefits (including hidden costs and co-benefits) with a simple financial analysis to inform investors. After assessing the impacts at the individual intervention level on environmental, social and economic aspects in the first study, the technical potential of a technology is estimated for a given country in the second INVESTA study. The rationale for enlarging the scope from the intervention level to the country level is to provide decision-makers with an indication of socio-economic costs and benefits related to the introduction of specific energy technologies in the milk, vegetable and rice value chains associated with investments at scale.