Tanzania has landed a $20 million biofuel processing project that will see large-scale planting of jatropha for the production and distribution of crude and refined products.
Sun Biofuels Tanzania Ltd, in which Britain's Sun Biofuels Plc has an 88 per cent stake, has already applied for 9,000 hectares of land in Kisarawe district in the Coast Region, some 70 kilometers from Dar es Salaam.
The process of land acquisition for the project is at an advanced stage, awaiting President Jakaya Kikwete's assent. This will see 11 villages of one of the oldest districts in Tanzania relinquish a total of 9,000 hectares of land to the investor.
Leo Rwegasira, Land Officer for Kisarawe district, said that Tsh800 million ($632,000) has been earmarked by the investor as compensation to 2,840 households. The University College of Land and Architectural Studies (UCLAS) carried out the crop and land evaluation for purposes of compensation, he said. According to the 2002 population census, there are a total of 11, 277 people residing in the 11 villages.
Sun Biofuels had applied for 20,000 hectares in 2005, but authorities were able to offer just 9,000. The investment has already been registered by the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC). The investment implementation period is expected to be between September 25, 2005 and August 2009, and the operative date is September 1, 2009.
But owing to the existing land regulations, the investors can only get a title deed, which is being processed, after the villagers have been compensated.
Apart from Sun Biofuels Plc of the UK, the company's shareholders are a British national, Julian Ozanne (10 per cent), and Daudi Makobore and Herbert Marwa, Tanzanian nationals who own one per cent each.
Omar Dibibi, Kisarawe District Council Chairman, said the jatropha biofuel project would catalyse the district's economy and give residents a new cash crop. Traditionally, cashewnut and coconut have been the major cash crops in the district. He said the arrangement between local residents and the investors is that the former will also be given expertise and seeds to grow jatropha and sell it to SBC.
The investment is expected directly or indirectly to employ about 1,000 local people for a start, a figure that could rise as the project expands.
Experts say the annual yield per hectare is up to 8 tonnes of jtropha seed, which contain over 30 per cent oil. At $320 per tonne, this will translate into production of jatropha crude oil worth $768 per hectare per year. Of potentially equal or greater value is the yield from jatropha seeds of glycerin. Up to 7 per cent of jatropha seeds are made up of glycerin, which sells for up to $2,000 per tonne, translating into glycerin sales of up to $1,120 per year per hectare, or total sales of up to $1,888 per year per hectare, experts say.
It is understood that the University of Dar es Salaam through the Energy Department in the Faculty of Engineering, along with the Tanzania Industrial Research Development Organisation, Kakute Ltd Tanzania and the Seliani Agriculture Research Institute of Arusha, are involved in research and development of the crop.
But according to a recent study entitled "Prospects for Jatropha Biofuels in Developing Countries : An Analysis for Tanzania with Strategic Niche Management," there are many obstacles in Tanzania's energy regime that could impede the emerging transition towards jatropha.
The East African
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