BIO4Africa

Diversifying revenue in rural Africa through circular, sustainable and replicable bio-based solutions and business models

The project aims to support the deployment of the bioeconomy in rural Africa via the development of bio-based solutions and value chains with a circular approach to drive the cascading use of local resources and diversify the income of farmers.  It focuses on transferring simple, small-scale and robust biobased technologies, which are adapted to local biomass needs and contexts (green biorefinery, pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonisation, briquetting, pelletising, bio-composites and bioplastics production).  In doing so the project aims at empowering farmers to sustainably produce a variety of higher value bio-based products and energy (animal feed, fertiliser, pollutant absorbents, construction materials, packaging, solid fuel for cooking and ingredients for biogas production), significantly improving the environmental, economic and social performance of their forage agri-food systems.

For this purpose, 4 pilot cases have been set up with over 8 testing sites in Uganda, Ghana, Senegal and Ivory Coast, offering more than 300 farmers and farmer groups of all sizes (incl. small dairy and lower-income farmers, women farmer groups and transhumant pastoralists) the opportunity to test them in real productive conditions. In the process, the project consortium of 13 African and 12 EU partners will work closely with local rural communities, extension services and government, jointly developing novel value chains driven by circular business models, all while safeguarding agronomic, environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Role of DRAXIS:

DRAXIS will be responsible for mapping the local agri-food systems, available feedstocks, actors, processes, resource flows, and value chains of the project’s pilot cases. In addition, DRAXIS will be responsible for conducting the Life Cycle Assessment, the Social Life Cycle Assessment and the Techno-economic assessment of the project. Αnalysis and Social Life Cycle Assessment will be carried out per pilot case to assess the environmental, economic, and social impact of the suggested bio-based technologies.