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NA Market AFRICA Jatropha, best of biofuels?Bioenergy provides an opportunity for rural Africans to move out of poverty through access to modern forms of energy that will help investment in agriculture. And what is more, the Jatropha plant, available in Africa since the 16th century, is not only at the core of the bioenergy revolution, it is also easy to grow and has the potential of creating millions of jobs in rural Africa. Victoria Ferris reports. F ood, fuel, and finance are the three great crises that have shocked the world in recent years. This threefold calamity requires active responses on a global scale, yet developing and low-polluter countries are suffering the worst effects of climate change, and in many cases are left helpless. Much ink has been spilled describing how African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to their heavy reliance on climate-sensitive industries such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries but few talk about implementing potential remedies. If the world remains on this disastrous course, African agriculture will continue to be painfully affected. Freak changes in water availability have already led to a significant decline in rainfall across the continent. East Africa’s rains, when they come at all, are heavier with intense storms, leading to crop losses and other destruction. In West Africa, all along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, extreme floods throughout May and June 2009 brought devastation and a heavy death toll. It is, therefore, only sensible for people to advocate for the world’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide to reverse the consequences by cutting their emissions. In those countries, and in Africa too, alternative energies exist, and must be utilised. It is against this background that a Green Power Conference was held in Accra, Ghana from 26-29 October. It hosted the Bioenergy Markets West Africa Symposium with 100 select participants and speakers to identify both the financial risks and the great potential for financing African bioenergy production. There was a consensus that bioenergy provides a multiplicity of benefits to African economies. The mood throughout the four-day event was that bioenergy represents an opportunity for the vast majority of rural Africans to move out of poverty through access to modern forms of energy that will help investment in agriculture. In order to alleviate poverty and to grow their economies, African countries need energy security, and there are a variety of options such as harnessing the hydropower of the vast Congo River and other major waterways in Africa, to utilising photovoltaic solar panels, wind turbines, and bioenergy crops such as jatropha or sugarcane. If agriculture can produce its own energy from biowaste, and use rotational crops to replenish soils, it will represent a huge leap in the right direction. With enormous unmet demand for electricity (only 16% of the continent is electrified), ample labour resources, and abundant land mixed with the proven technology to convert biomass for elec- 56 | New African December 2009
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tricity generation, Africa’s bioenergy opportunity clearly stands out. The amount of electrification in sub-Saharan Africa is even lower at only 8% while Africans spend up to 70% of their household income on energy (diesel, kerosene, charcoal), showing there is a pressing need to remedy Africa’s energy insecurity. Together with the Ghanaian Ministry of Energy, President John Atta Mills released a draft renewable energy bill in September 2009 to promote renewable sources for electricity generation. Ghana has the highest rate of electrification in the West African region, with Nigeria second. Hosts of the Ecowas electricity regula- “Africa as a continent, theoretically, could produce all the energy the world needs, but only 16% of the continent is electrified at the moment.” The oil from jatropha seeds can be used for making soap, biofuel or converted to electrical power tory agency and the Bioenergy Markets West Africa Symposium, Ghana has been pushing for electrification as a priority for the past 20 years with the eventual goal of 100% full coverage and universal access within the next 10 years. This aspiration of 100% electrification could soon be realised by generating energy and fuel from jatropha, palm oil, ethanol and sweet sorghum. “Africa as a continent, theoretically could produce all the energy the world needs,” says Clifford Spencer, one of the UN Foundation experts who worked on a recent comprehensive report on sustainable bioenergy development in the member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). However, according to Spencer, strategic agronomical practices must be put in place to battle challenges like water scarcity and historic factors such as erratic crop yields and rural-urban migration. Biodiesel is a recent phenomenon in Ghana, with much of the focus on jatropha and palm oil. The average price of vegetable oil (jatropha, palm oil, soya, coconut etc) is high, currently at $1.20-$1.60 per litre. Transforming these oils into biodiesel requires an additional 40-50% of that cost, bringing it to $2.30 per litre. So is jatropha profitable? At present jatropha farmers and those in the agro-oil trade are reaping small returns, but that is only because it is largely a new industry. It is expected that over the next few years raw materials and seed prices will come down, and improved agronomic methods will become available to increase yields. With oil trading at $100 a barrel, the potential to extract alternative fuel out of jatropha seed and other alternatives is very attractive. It is still cheaper to use manual labour rather than mechanised methods in jatropha cultivation, and with much of rural Africa plagued by high unemployment, biofuels do not only bring energy security but also create local jobs and renew bleak rural economies across the continent. While jatropha holds many advantages socially, economically, and environmentally, there are still arduous barriers to exploiting it on a large scale. For instance, vast farmable holdings are only available December 2009 New African | 57

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NA Market

AFRICA

Jatropha, best of biofuels?Bioenergy provides an opportunity for rural Africans to move out of poverty through access to modern forms of energy that will help investment in agriculture. And what is more, the Jatropha plant, available in Africa since the 16th century, is not only at the core of the bioenergy revolution, it is also easy to grow and has the potential of creating millions of jobs in rural Africa. Victoria Ferris reports. F

ood, fuel, and finance are the three great crises that have shocked the world in recent years. This threefold calamity requires active responses on a global scale, yet developing and low-polluter countries are suffering the worst effects of climate change, and in many cases are left helpless. Much ink has been spilled describing how African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to their heavy reliance on climate-sensitive industries such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries but few talk about implementing potential remedies.

If the world remains on this disastrous course, African agriculture will continue to be painfully affected. Freak changes in water availability have already led to a significant decline in rainfall across the continent. East Africa’s rains, when they come at all, are heavier with intense storms, leading to crop losses and other destruction. In West Africa, all along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, extreme floods throughout May and June 2009 brought devastation and a heavy death toll.

It is, therefore, only sensible for people to advocate for the world’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide to reverse the consequences by cutting their emissions. In those countries, and in Africa too, alternative energies exist, and must be utilised.

It is against this background that a

Green Power Conference was held in Accra, Ghana from 26-29 October. It hosted the Bioenergy Markets West Africa Symposium with 100 select participants and speakers to identify both the financial risks and the great potential for financing African bioenergy production.

There was a consensus that bioenergy provides a multiplicity of benefits to African economies. The mood throughout the four-day event was that bioenergy represents an opportunity for the vast majority of rural Africans to move out of poverty through access to modern forms of energy that will help investment in agriculture. In order to alleviate poverty and to grow

their economies, African countries need energy security, and there are a variety of options such as harnessing the hydropower of the vast Congo River and other major waterways in Africa, to utilising photovoltaic solar panels, wind turbines, and bioenergy crops such as jatropha or sugarcane. If agriculture can produce its own energy from biowaste, and use rotational crops to replenish soils, it will represent a huge leap in the right direction.

With enormous unmet demand for electricity (only 16% of the continent is electrified), ample labour resources, and abundant land mixed with the proven technology to convert biomass for elec-

56 | New African December 2009

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