A great story on local agriculture from NBC nightly news.

"The government began a subsidy program for small-scale farmers, providing them with fertilizers and high-tech seeds at roughly 15 percent of the market cost – the fertilizers and seeds were required for a more productive and resilient crop. The scheme cost the Malawian government $60 million, a huge amount for one of the poorest countries in the world where the average annual income is only $250."
 
"Malawi’s major donors, including the World Bank, European Union and the United States balked and warned Malawi to reconsider. They claimed that such large-scale subsidies would cripple the economy. But the government went ahead."

I guess local agriculture maybe a better idea than "free" traders think?  Maybe it would even work here in the over developed world?

Now how could the government  encourage distributed biodigestion plants to produce organic fertilizer (and cogenerate power) and subsidize local seed farmers, to save that 60 million? 

By subsidizing these other developments, the original 60 million would stay in the local economy.  Buy seed from the seed farmers at full price, vend it to farmers at a fraction of the cost.  The same with the organic fertilizer, pay the going price for chemical fertilizer for the organic fertilizer, sell it to the farmers for a fraction of the cost.

Eventually the subsidies could be reduced and the market could take over, with appropriate regulation.

This plan would work in any area in any country, to encourage local agriculture and clean energy. The biodigestion energy would backup a solar and wind powered electrical grid.

And the beautiful part of organic fertilizer is that it will build the soil with biomass, instead of burning it up with the chemical fertilizer.  And locally grown seeds selected for organic growing will yield more consistent results than GMO seed.