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Reliable energy is a critical but often overlooked enabler of agricultural productivity. Small Foundation recently supported research by Power for All (now part of CLASP) to assess the potential of distributed renewable energy (DRE) to address agricultural inefficiencies across staple crop value chains in Uganda and Ethiopia.
Energy gaps limit agricultural productivity
The research examined four value chains – dairy and matooke in Uganda, and maize and teff in Ethiopia – to identify where in the value chains energy constraints reduce productivity and where DRE can have the greatest impact. Drawing on techno-economic modelling , field data and stakeholder interviews, it identified common challenges across all four value chains, including low productivity driven by reliance on manual labour and rainfall, significant post-harvest losses, high processing costs due to diesel-powered equipment, and fragmented market access.
Productive-use energy can deliver strong returns
The research also highlights several DRE technologies to address specific inefficiencies that combine high feasibility with strong economic returns, including:
- Solar lighting for dairy farmers in Uganda, used to light early-morning and late-evening milking sessions – the hours when contamination risk is highest without reliable light. This can increase annual profits by around 18% while providing an accessible entry point for wider adoption of productive-use technologies.
- Solar water pumps, which can increase annual profits by 33–50%, reduce dependence on increasingly unpredictable rainfall, and strengthen climate resilience.
- Electric motorbikes in Ethiopia, used by transport operators to move teff from farms and collection points to market over the country’s rural roads, in place of costlier and less reliable diesel transport. They offer some of the highest income gains identified in the study, with annual profit potential of up to 100% for transport operators.
Financing is essential to scale adoption
Finally, the research showed that DRE technology needs to be combined with appropriate financing models that reflect the realities of agricultural cash flows, alongside stronger farmer organisations, supportive public policy and investment in enabling infrastructure. For Small Foundation, these insights reinforce our understanding of the complexities of enabling access to technology and highlight the gap between proven opportunities and the financing needed to scale them.
An overview of the research and the full report are available here.
*Techno-economic modelling evaluates the economic performance of a technology
