Electricity access targets for ambitious programs such as M300 and ASCENT are summarized in household electrification numbers, but these programs are designed to unlock electricity’s ability to drive socio-economic development. Of the 600 million people without access in Africa, most are rural, poor, and dependent on agriculture. Yet, there is an opportunity. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to a quarter of the arable land in the world but only 10% of agriculture production. Electricity can help unlock access to irrigation which can dramatically improve productivity of agriculture. Directing investments, agronomy and hydrology to where farmer-led irrigation clusters are found would ensure that these farmers have overcome other constraints of water and market access.

It is in this spirit that Columbia World Projects (CWP) launched the “Using Data to Catalyze Energy Investments” initiative in 2019 in Uganda. In addition to a focus on Productive Uses of Energy (PUE), such as agro-processing businesses and cold storage facilities, we also studied irrigation clusters. Key objectives of this work are to help the government, private sector, and donors plan energy sector investments.

A related objective was to establish evidence of demand to inform electricity access planning. We should have a forthcoming brief on that soon. The irrigation effort benefited from consultations with key stakeholders within the Government of Uganda, principally the Ministry for Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD), and Ministries of Agriculture, Water and Environment and Local Governance- ensuring close alignment of activities with national goals.

Read the full brief here.