Huge bio-diesel investment boon to national economy

As fossil fuel prices keep on rising daily and global concerns for enhanced use of greener energy become ever more omnipresent, investments in alternative liquid bio-fuels are also becoming attractive.

In Tanzania, a growing interest by corporations to invest in Jatropha farming has lately been gaining ground.

A firm named Export Trading Company Limited claims has invested about USD25m for cultivating 12,000 hectors of bio-diesel yielding Jatropha plantation in Mbarali district, Mbeya region.

Our Special Correspondent Prosper Makene caught up with John Beverley, Estate Manager and discussed issues related to growing bio-fuel industry.

Q: Why did Export Trading have to take such huge land area for Jatropha project?

A: We need to produce bio-diesel on a large scale so that by 2010, all diesel-motorcars and machines could reliably use bio-diesel from jatropha seeds.

Our company has started to grow about 12,000 hectors of land but we are still talking with the government with the aim getting another 50,000 hectors so as to benefit from scale economies.

Our achievement would also translate into national gains, as the economy will save on scarce foreign exchange now spent on importation of fossil diesels from overseas.

How many decent jobs could this epic project generate?
Export Trading is expecting to employ more than 5000 people for the various plantation works and we want to be sure that on or after 2010, we can supply entire national fuel demand and compete with imported fossil fuel products.

To what extent do Tanzania`s physical conditions support jatropha plantation industry?
Tanzania is second to Mali as African pioneers in the use of bio-diesel.

It is understood that jatropha, an inedible crop, is drought resistant plant, and can grow well on lands considered unsuitable for agriculture.

Although Jatropha is commonly planted in Southern America, India and Mali but our research on cultivation and propagation of Jatropha in Tanzania would most likely make our project very successful in short time.

Our results indicate that manure has a positive impact on the growth rate once germination begins. Likewise, the intensity of watering and temperature seems to have a fundamental impact on the germination rate.

What are the other traditional benefits could jatropha render to communities?

The plant has been mostly used by farmers as living fences around their homesteads and gardens, sometimes also around their fields, to protect crops against roaming animals but in Tanzania jatropha is called \'mbono makaburi\' which means plants allocated for the burial ground .

The seeds for a long time did not play any important role, the reason why farmers cannot tell which ones are good yielding plants.

Since flowers of the jatropha plant are only developed terminally, only plants bearing many branches, i.e. with a good ramification, can produce lots of fruits. A good plant should have bunches of jatropha fruits at every end of a branch.

Usually jatropha plants are multiplied by cuttings, because this kind of multiplication is faster than through seed germination. The yields of plantations have not been carefully measured up to now.

Since then, triggered by the ever rising fuel prices, various governments have started jatropha projects.

Briefly, why are several African countries are now resorting to bio-energy especially from jatropha?

The consumption and demand for the petroleum products are increasing every year due to increase in population, standards of living and urbanization.

Diesel consumption pattern especially in Tanzania has not varied much. The increase in fossil oil importation drains up foreign exchange that could be put to other meaningful development causes.

The UN, governments and green activists across the globe are seriously opting for bio-fuels because they are cleaner sources of energy which do not contribute to global warming.

More importantly, bio-diesel can flexibly be applied on mechanical platforms previously running on fossil fuels.

In developed countries, bio-diesel is produced from soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, peanut, etc., which are essentially edible in the Tanzanian context.

Among the various vegetable oil sources, non-edible oils are suitable for bio-diesel production, because edible oils are already in demand and at times too expensive than fossil diesel fuel.

Among the non-edible oil sources, jatropha shell is identified as potential bio-diesel source as compared with other sources.

It grows rapidly, has higher seed productivity and is suitable for tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including Tanzania.

Source: The Guardian, 2007-11-15 09:53:23