Biofuels and Food Security: Micro-evidence from Ethiopia

This paper provides microeconomic evidence on food security impacts of privately organized biofuel outgrower schemes in Ethiopia. We conducted a household and community level survey and evaluated the impact of castor bean firming. We use endogenous switching regressions to analyze the impact on food security. Food security (as measured by a ?food gap?) and food caloric intake is significantly better in households producing castor beans. ?Fuel? and ?food? are complements rather than substitutes at the micro-level in castor production in Ethiopia.