Tanzania envisages large-scale agriculture of crops which can be used as an alternative source of energy, deputy minister for agriculture Christopher Chiza has said.
Chiza said that crops that are known to produce biofuel include palm trees, sunflowers, cashews, coconut trees, cotton seeds and simsim (sesame). He said coconuts produce 65 per cent, groundnuts (45 to 55 per cent), cashew nuts (46 per cent), sunflowers (25 to 85 per cent), palm fruits (43 to 51 per cent) and jatropha (33 to 60 per cent).
He said his ministry plans to cultivate 600 hectares of jatropha in a bid to generate seeds that would be distributed to farmers in the 2009/10 farming season. He said eleven foreign companies have invested in the cultivation of crops that produce biofuels. The companies include Felisa (in Kigoma region); Amma (in Tanga region); Diligent Tanzania Limited (in Arusha); Procon, Diadem (in Rukwa region) and CEPA (Morogoro). Chiza said the continual soaring of fuel prices, coupled with the negative impact the fuels exact on the environment, has prompted the interest in biofuels.
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