Cassava's high biofuels potential creates new possibilities for smallholder farmers

Cassava is increasingly gaining attention in the developing world as an attractive biofuel crop, with ethanol derived from it have a strong energy balance. This contrasts with fuels made from crops grown in the US and the EU, the fuels of which barely have a positive energy balance and do little to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, cassava thrives under rain-fed conditions on marginal lands not suitable for other crops, requires relatively low inputs and is thus easily cultivated by small farmers. It grows far away from rain forests the soils of which are not suitable for the crop, thus limiting the risk of the biofuel driving deforestation.

Some of the brightest minds in biotechnology, like Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, are working on mapping cassava's genome with the aim of improving it for fuel production.

According to a report from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), "Cassava can contribute to agro-industrial and small-farmer development in the tropics. One of the most recent advances, using cassava to produce fuel alcohol, has opened multiple opportunities, not least for small farmers."

Countries like Thailand and China have already taken it up to produce ethanol. In Nigeria, the Presidential Cassava Initiative is aimed at ethanol and biogas, and is expected to bring 3 million jobs.

An initiative by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia (part of the CGIAR), is now playing an active role in diversifying the use of cassava and in creating new strategies to access markets. The approach facilitates the participation of small farmers in the production of cassava as the raw material and in pre-processing activities. The cassava roots are initially transformed into ethanol at 50% concentration by the small producers at the most local level. The alcohol is then taken to a central distillery to produce fuel alcohol (ethanol at 99.5% concentration).

One of the biggest hurdles to producing fuels from biomass efficiently, transporting the bulky material over long distances, is thus overcome. Raw biomass (such as starch tubers) has a low energy content. By transforming the material into an intermediate product with a higher energy density (alcohol) at the local level, the transport costs can be greatly reduced.

Artisan-scale processing plants can easily be set up in many rural communities because of their low cost. Small distilleries have been around for a long time, but their efficiency can be greatly improved with minimal redesigns. In addition, processing by-products from the fermentation step can be used by the local farmers as feed stocks for biogas, animal feed and organic fertiliser.

CIAT and CLAYUCA received financial support from Colombia’s ministry of agriculture to establish in the second half of 2007, a pilot plant for processing ethanol from cassava, sweet potato and other sources of biomass. The plant’s processing capacity will be 800 liters a day. It will be located at CIAT's headquarters.

The experience can serve as a model for other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that seek the sustainable development of bioenergy programs using traditional crops.

The project is not limited to biofuel production. It also aims to solve the problem of contamination from solid and liquid wastes. Several companies recently formed an alliance to transform the contaminating residues resulting from the manufacture of ethanol (sugar industry effluents, also known as vinasse) into competitive products, thus helping to reduce the adverse environmental impact of these residues on the region’s soil and water resources.

Cassava is traditionally grown as a subsistence crop and seen as an emergency foodstuff. It can be left in the ground for long periods of time and harvested in times of scarcity. At this subsistence level, yields remain low. Given the vast number of small farmers who grow cassava in Africa, Asia and Latin America without inputs, production from existing hectarages can be increased considerably with micro-doses of fertilizer.

Some countries, like Thailand and Nigeria, have developed an industrial-scale cassava sector which serves to produce animal feeds and starch. Nigeria used to export large quantities to the EU, but new policies there which support European animal fodder producers have closed off the market. For this reason, former president Olusegun Obasanjo launched a 'Presidential Cassava Initiative' aimed at boosting and diversifying uses for the crop. Biofuels offer an entirely new
market and may revive the sector for industrial cassava.

Biopact