Jatropha boom goes bust

Once upon a time, way back in 2009, a certain person who wishes to remain anonymous attended a jatropha conference somewhere in West Africa. For several days one listened to many esteemed experts from all over the world giving impressive presentations about all the proof they had from their studies that jatropha was definitely the best thing since sliced bread.

Your man Anonymous also gave a presentation, but it went against the conference’s grain by cautioning that it was premature and misleading to tout benefits for which there simply wasn’t enough evidence. Poor Anonymous almost got laughed out of the room. At tea break he was almost accosted by a senior official of the host country’s government, which had invested heavily in jatropha cultivation with the support of its former colonial power. The official made it clear he was neither impressed nor amused by Anonymous’ presentation.

And now, at the end of 2012, a mere three years later but seemingly a lot longer in jatropha years? There seems to be an emerging consensus that jatropha is not what it was once cracked up to be. Anonymous has often wondered what the senior jatropha official of country X would say today about the prematurely heavy investment he confidently assured his government would quickly, handsomely pay off.

Among those to lose millions of dollars on the jatropha gamble have been once brilliant-sounding investors from Britain, Sweden and elsewhere. They were going to make clean, green, politically-correct jatropha biodiesel fortunes in countries as disparate as Ghana in West Africa and Tanzania in East Africa. Almost all these once highly, glowingly publicised investments have gone bust.

The main reason that these jatropha dreams collapsed is very simple- a failure to heed the lessons of a course every farmer has out of necessity taken in the field-Common Sense 101. Saying a crop is drought tolerant, hardy and can survive in harsh conditions is very different from saying that plant will produce optimally or profitably in those conditions. Incredibly, there were many entrepreneurs who were able to sweet talk normally hard-headed investors out of millions of dollars in capital for jatropha projects without asking the basic questions of Farming Common Sense 101.

Anonymous was so surprised and disillusioned by the jatropha recklessness that he has never been able to be as knee-jerkingly excited at news of any big new farming investment that it is claimed is going to easily, quickly make its promoters millionaires.

If only farming, business and life were that easy.

The article that prompted these jatropha musings is not a particularly deep treatment of the subject, but it is mildly interesting. And as it points out, the busting of the jatropha boom does not mean that the crop does not still have a useful future.

African Agriculture

Jatropha boom produces more losers than winners

Jatropha was supposed to be the great new 'green gold,' but over the last few years many projects based on its cultivation for oil have gone bust.

In Africa, much publicized projects that have failed for one reason or another include those by British, Dutch and Swedish investors in Mozambique and Tanzania. Plans for expansion of cultivation projects in China and India have been scaled back.

A tough crop that can grow on land of marginal fertility with relatively little water, this was touted as an example of how this biofuel crop was politically correct since it would not compete with food crops. But it is now broadly accepted that while jatropha may survive under such conditions, it will not strive commercially under them. Like almost every other cash crop, it needs fertile soil and sufficient water to produce maximum yields.

Despite the disappointments and the many failures, interest in jatropha's potential continues among some investors, who are convinced it is a matter of finding the right cultivation/business model. There also seems to be a building up of the view that it may not be as viable a crop for small scale farmers to cultivate as once thought, and that only some plantation projects in certain parts of the world will be commercially successful.

More...Bloomberg Businessweek

Nigeria, China ink deal to invest $2.55 billion in biorefinery projects

by Jim Lane

In Nigeria, Bloomberg and several local outlets are reporting that the Nigerian government has signed a $2.55 billion development deal with Global Biofuels, to construct 15 integrated biorefineries throughout the West African nation. According to reports, the first pilot plant will be completed in Ilemeso, in Ekiti State by Q4 2012, and projects thereafter will be completed in Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi,Benue, Gombe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau states. Project cost for the initial pilot plant is $108M, while full-scale plants are expected to cost $183 million each.

According to Global Biofuels, $1.78 billion, or 70 percent of the financing will come from the Chinese government. The remainder will come from NEXIM Bank, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Africa Finance Corporation; Fond Gari, and First Bank of Nigeria. The projects expect to generate 100 tons of total biomass per hectare, per yearn, using two cropping cycles per year, with total tonnage including tops, leaves, stalks and the primary crop. That equates to roughly 20 tons of total biomass per growing season, per acre.

But the massive Nigerian investment is just one of several announced in recent weeks and months in West Africa.
Nigerian Export-Import Bank:$695M

Just last week, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank gave $695 million to five companies investing in renewables including $12 million for a jatropha project and $56 million for a sorghum ethanol project.

The majority of the funding went to a sugarcane project that will include a bagasse co-generation component while the rest of the funding was for waste-to-energy projects.

Just before the US Thanksgiving holiday, the Ondo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ademola Olorunfemi, said that the state would approve development of three sugarcane plantations and ethanol plants, with a focus on the production of biofuels and rural economic development. The Commissioner also said that the plants could provide materials for the bio-pharma industry.

The projects, whose goals center around industrialization and employment, indicate a new direction for the economy of this agriculture-heavy area of Nigeria.
Dangote Group, $7.7B

The same week, Aliko Dangote, the president of Dangote Group, announced an investment of $7.7 billion in Rivers Energy City, home of the budding $2 billion fertilizer and ethanol plant project put on by Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Company. His investment, says a top government source, will span into the methane and ethanol industries and provide thousands of jobs in the upcoming energy city.
Global Biofuels: $91M

In August, Global Biofuels has announced plans for ethanol plants across the West African region, with $91 million in sellers credit from COZA of Hong Kong and WEMET of China. The final project is expected to cost over $183 million, and produce 72 million liters of ethanol from 1.95 million tons of sorghum per year, and 216 gigawatts of electricity. Total land use as reported would be 65,000 ha in Nigeria and 32,500 ha in neighboring Economic Community of West African States member countries.

Also in August, Nosak Distilleries Ltd said it would raise production capacity at its Lagos facility to 540,000 liters per day from its current 350,000 liters per day. It also announced plans to commission a new 150,000 liter per day facility in Calabar, Cross River. Its first facility was commissioned in 2001 and together the company supplies about 70% of local ethanol demand.
The Bottom Line

Announcements of MOUs should be taken for what they are – an understanding that steel will go into the ground, as opposed to the actual construction of actual capacity. However, the trend is clear, scale is happening, project financing is becoming easier to source, especially overseas, and China is definitely expanding its ambitions with respect to countering the US lead in advanced biofuels technology, with a Chinese lead in actual gallons of renewable fuel.


Biofuels Digest

Africa biofuel investments inder scrutiny

by Gabe Joselow

Energy companies around the world have been buying up land in Africa to grow crops that can be converted into fuel. While these biofuels have been touted as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, more environmental groups want the investment curbed - warning that biofuels are causing more harm than good.

When an Italian-owned energy company proposed to buy land in the woodlands of eastern Kenya to grow jatropha trees to make biofuel, they promised jobs, development and money to the communities living there.

But the rights group ActionAid says when the deal was being signed, the people most affected had not been told the truth. ActionAid team leader in Kenya's Coast region David Barissa Ringa says plans to co-opt some 20,000 hectares of land for a jatropha plantation would have displaced some 20,000 people.

“They were really enraged about what happened, because if anything, you can imagine having to leave your farm, having to leave your homestead and destroy everything and move and nobody has promised you any new land where you can actually relocate and continue your daily life,” said Ringa.

The case is now being reviewed by Kenya's Environmental Management Authority, while the company has already agreed to scale back the project to a 2,000 hectare pilot program. Legally, it appears neither the company nor the local authorities who signed the deal had done anything wrong. It was all in line with Kenya's existing constitution.

Rights groups are concerned that, legal or not, the push for biofuels has had a negative impact on local communities in Africa. Ringa, of ActionAid, also questions the environmental benefits.

“The whole essence why people go into biofuel production and greener fuel sources is that we cut down on carbon emissions," he said. "But if you cut down trees, if you have to bring down a whole forest and displace thousands of people from their homestead, I think it doesn't really make any sense.”

In a report earlier this year, a consortium of environmental groups called Friends of the Earth, said European energy companies had bought more than five million hectares of land across Africa, an area larger than the size of Denmark, for biofuel investment. The report said European Union targets to use 10% biofuel for transportation by 2020 has spurred land grabs.

ActionAid Senior Policy Analyst Marie Brill says her group is pushing for changes to these policies at the United Nations Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa.

“And we'll come to Durban also with a real call that governments come together and commit to drop incentives and mandates and targets for biofuels which has really spurred this push for land and land-use change and threatened food security - not only has threatened food security but also has been dangerous for our environment,” explained Brill.

While environmental groups have made the case against biofuels for years, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says the industry can still bring benefits.

“Our conclusion - the basic message is that biofuels are not good or bad per se, it all depends on how you grow them, how you manage them,” said Olivier Du Bois, FAO senior natural resources officer.

The FAO has created tool kits to advise governments and investors setting out on biofuels projects, to help ensure they are environmentally and socially responsible.

DuBois says an important consideration is that the crops grown to create fuel do not compete with those meant to grow food.

"We did some work on cassava for example in Tanzania at the request of the government and we found out that if you increase the yield of cassava enough and if you grow it on land that can be used for other export crops then it doesn't compete with food," said DuBois. "On the contrary, it may actually promote the development of a yield increase which also benefits food production.”

While the merits of the industry may be up for debate, the demand for biofuels has shown no signs of slowing down.

The Bloomberg news agency reports prices for ethanol - a fuel that can be made from sugarcane and corn - have risen to record highs on high demand from Brazil and Europe.

Meanwhile, airlines from the United States to Australia have begun experimenting with biofuel-powered planes. And producers are making plans to ramp up production to meet the growing need.

VOA

UK firm's failed biofuel dream wrecks lives of Tanzania villagers

by Damian Carrington

"People feel this is like the return of colonialism," says Athumani Mkambala, chairman of Mhaga village in rural Tanzania. "Colonialism in the form of investment."

A quarter of the village's land in Kisarawe district was acquired by a British biofuels company in 2008, with the promise of financial compensation, 700 jobs, water wells, improved schools, health clinics and roads. But the company has gone bust, leaving villagers not just jobless but landless as well. The same story is playing out across Africa, as foreign investors buy up land but leave some of the poorest people on Earth worse off when their plans fail.

The tale of London-based Sun Biofuels's misadventure in Kisarawe links the broken hopes of the villagers to offshore tax havens and mysterious new owners, tracked down by the Observer, and ultimately to petrol pumps in the UK and across Europe. The final link results from the mandatory blending of biofuels into European petrol and diesel. The aim is to reduce carbon emissions, but many say biofuels actually increase pollution. The G20 meeting next week will discuss the issue, following a stark report it received in June from the World Bank, World Trade Organisation, UN and others calling for biofuels subsidies to be abandoned.

"The situation in Kisarawe is heartbreaking, but the real tragedy is that it is far from unique. Communities across Africa and beyond are losing their land as a result of the massive biofuel targets set by our government," said Josie Cohen at development group ActionAid, which works in Kisarawe. "Like it or not, everyone who drives a car or catches a bus is involved in this problem, as all UK petrol and diesel is mixed with biofuels."

It was the promise of this lucrative export market that led Sun Biofuels to Africa to plant jatropha, the seeds of which can be processed into biodiesel. Mkambala's first contact with the company was in 2006 through the former Kisarawe MP, Athumani Janguo. "People trusted him. We thought all our problems would be solved," Mkambala told the Observer. He says no compensation has been paid for the land, on which villagers used to hunt animals, gather firewood, wild mushrooms and honey.

Mhaga has no electricity, and water has to be carried each day from a well several kilometres away, back to the small mud or concrete-block houses in which 1,000 people live. "Water is everything," says local activist Halima Ali, sitting with three of her children on the earth floor of their home. "Because they promised there would be water available, everyone was happy." There would be more time for farming and more time for her children to go to school, she says. But the company drilled only a 6in-wide hole in the village, despite having sunk a 100m well on the plantation. "We thought something very good had come to the village, to lift our standard of life, but now we are only crying," she says.

Sun Biofuels was the first company to come to the area and about 50 people in Mhaga rushed to take jobs at its plantation, some queueing for days for the £42-a-month salary. Saidi Abasi was one, but he was soon unhappy. He asked his employer why a promised pay rise failed to materialise. "The reply was 'if you want to work, work. If you don't, get out'," he says.

Abasi's job was spraying pesticides, but he claims he was initially given no protective equipment. "During spraying, we became like drunk people," he says. When his contract was terminated after Sun Biofuels went into administration, he says he was not paid the full severance pay due for his 18 months of service.

Mhaga's crowded school teaches 257 children and was promised new classrooms, books and materials, says teacher Rhamadani Lwinde, but all that appeared were a few portable blackboards. In addition to the village land, the company also took 670 hectares of Lwinde's family land, he says. He was offered 13m Tanzanian shillings (£4,835), which he says was not a good price, "but we were advised to accept it by the district authorities. If we had problems we would sort it out later, they said." In the end he says he was paid for just 85 hectares.

In the nearby village of Mtamba, villagers tell the same stories of broken promises and unpaid compensation. Tabu Koba says he was one of 11 people to lose land and one of nine who received no money at all. "We are very angry," he says. "My children have now left school but have nowhere to farm."

Sun Biofuels and two related companies went into administration in August, but their shares in a Tanzanian subsidiary – Sun Biofuels Tanzania, which did not go bust – were sold. The insolvency company directed the Observer to Christopher Egerton-Warburton and a company called Thirty Degrees East, based in the tax haven of Mauritius. Egerton-Warburton is a former Goldman Sachs banker and now a partner at the London-based merchant bank Lion's Head Global Partners. "We are part of a consortium that purchased the shares of Sun Biofuels Tanzania," he said. "Given that we are currently in the process of raising additional funds, I am not at liberty to discuss publicly or off the record about our long-term plans."

Egerton-Warburton said a site visit was not possible, but when the Observer went to the plantation it was able to interview farm manager Ambilikile Mwenisongole, who has worked there for four years and lives on site. He confirmed that fewer than 50 of the 700 workers remained and that the plantation was not operating due to the change of ownership. Mwenisongole said the progress on the water wells and other social services were "not on target because of the transition", but he denied that workers lacked tools or protective equipment and rejected claims that access to an ancestral graveyard had been blocked. He blamed the complaints on rumours spread by "lazy" villagers.

It was not possible for the villagers to get their land back, Mwenisongole said. "It is now owned by the government. The government was meant to compensate the land owners." In Tanzania, large land deals are done through the district government, which acquires the land and then leases it to companies. District officials have told villagers that Sun Biofuels did not pay all the money due, but refused to see the Observer.

Mwenisongole named Kenyan Alan Mayers as the new chief executive of Sun Biofuels Tanzania. Mayers said he could not comment on the previous owners' failure to provide wells and classrooms, but added: "We are looking into the matter and our community relations officer is in constant contact with the villages." Villagers say that there has been just one recent meeting.

Mayers said all compensation for land and all due severance pay had been paid, and that he was unaware of claims by ex-workers that national insurance payments were missing. He added: "We are focused on a positive, collaborative relationship with local people."

Yet Kisarawe MP Selemani Saidi Jafo said: "I am the MP and I am not yet informed there is a new owner. What is the secret behind it? I need investors to come to my district, especially to help bring employment for many people. I prefer a win-win project, but this is not a win-win." Why Sun Biofuels went bust is unknown, as attempts to contact the previous owners were unsuccessful. Whatever the reason, the company is far from alone. A large jatropha plantation created by a Dutch firm called Bioshape in the southern Tanzanian district of Kilwa has also gone bankrupt, leaving locals complaining of missing land payments. Also in Tanzania, a large ethanol biofuel project set up by Swedish company Sekab went bust. In both cases, the land has not been returned to its owners.

Further afield, in Ghana, a Norwegian-backed jatropha project has collapsed, while in Mozambique a UK-linked company called Procana, behind a huge ethanol project, has folded in acrimony. The Observer's investigations and those of journalist Stefano Valentino have identified at least 30 abandoned biofuels projects in 15 African countries.

The thirst for biofuels to meet the UK and EU's rising targets has led British companies to lead the charge into Africa. Half the 3.2m hectares of biofuel land identified is linked to 11 British companies, the biggest proportion of any country. ActionAid's estimate suggests that up to 6m hectares has been acquired. But with landowners frequently illiterate and unaware of their rights, the potential for exploitation is high.

In Kisarawe, the villagers do not know if the promises will ever be kept. They feel deeply betrayed and are increasingly angry as time passes without answers. "If we have not got our rights by December, we will slash the jatropha plants," says Mkambala. "That will be the clearest sign that we do not need this company here."

The Guardian

British biofuel company pulls out of Kenya

Conservationists have congratulated a British firm which has become the first to pull out of the race to exploit a wildlife haven in Kenya.

European renewable fuel targets mean the Tana River Delta in Kenya – a  key site for threatened bird species as well as Hippopotamus and rare primates – is being targeted by companies hoping to grow biofuel crops.

The RSPB and others have been fighting the proposals which will destroy one of the most important wetland wildlife sites in Africa. Now G4 Industries Limited, based near Cambridge, UK, have withdrawn their proposal for a 28,000 ha project at Tana, citing growing evidence of environmental issues.

Tim Stowe, RSPB Director of International Operations, said: “We congratulate G4 Industries on their wise decision. They have listened to all the evidence about the impact of plantations in the Tana Delta and have done the right thing. We hope other companies with similar proposals in the area will now start to follow suit and withdraw their plans. This is fantastic news for wildlife and people in the Tana River

Delta. It is a truly remarkable place and it must be protected from the rush for biofuels which will cause more damage to our planet than the fossil fuels they replace.’’

Mike Pond, Executive Director of G4 Industries, said: “We have become  increasingly concerned about the environmental implications of  operations in the Tana Delta and we have now decided to withdraw from the region.’’

‘‘Sustainable farming is key to the world’s development but it is essential that these operations are carried out in harmony with the environment and working hand in hand with local governments and environmental organisations. This means avoiding areas of wildlife habitat and green field sites where a natural balance cannot be maintained.’’

‘‘It is interesting to note that 90 per cent of African farming operations, particularly subsistence farming, are delivering less than 30 per cent of the yield that could be achieved. Much work is required to address this issue

Bedford Biofuels Inc, a Canadian company, recently started work on their own 10,000 ha project to grow the controversial biofuel crop Jatropha in the Delta. Although described as a ‘pilot’, the plan is Phase 1 of a project aims ultimately to see jatropha plantations on over 60,000 ha in the Delta and surrounding area. The plant has been

hailed as a miracle biofuel crop, but in fact, fully rigorous scientific evaluation is yet to be done.

Paul Matiku, Executive Director of Nature Kenya, said: “We call on Bedford Biofuels to follow the example of G4 and withdraw their project. Their assertion that the land in the delta is currently large and unutilised is simply not true: the land is used by pastoralist communities and in the dry season there can be as many as 1.5 million

animals there.’’

‘‘Indeed, in times of drought like this year there could be as many as 3 million animals there. We hope that Bedford reconsiders its plans for Tana and we will continue to raise the issue with the Kenyan authorities to ensure their proposals do not harm the area’s precious wildlife.”

Bird Watch

UK-based Sun Biofuel's jatropha investment in Tanzania suspended

by Finnigan wa Simbeye

An ambitious biodiesel project which was allocated over 8,000 hectares of land by Kisarawe district (Tanzania) officials in 2008 is in trouble.

Employees and casual workers of Sun Biofuels Plc said that work at Kisarawe jatropha farm came to a halt in late September when managers informed over 300 of them to collect their terminal benefits and leave till further notice. Some workers of the British firm said they heard reports that the project has been sold but did not know who bought it.

Saidi Mohammed, an employee, said the management promised to rehire some of them once the project gets on firm footing as financial problems have forced management to suspend work at the site.

Several workers expressed disgust at the failing jatropha project which is the second time in less than five years for foreign firms to abandon their jatropha projects.

Netherlands based BioShape Holdings which acquired 34,000 hectares of land in Kilwa district of Lindi region, abandoned the farm in November 2009 blaming global recession. BioShape had employed over 100 people permanently while another 700 were casual labourers.

Efforts to get SBF Managing Director Richard Morgan comment on the latest development failed as he is reportedly outside the country. But an official with the company said activities have been temporarily suspended because of droughts.

“The trees have been so seriously affected by droughts that we cannot continue to keep people on the job and pay them salaries,” the official, who declined to identify himself, said while dismissing allegations that SBF has disposed of the project.

Sun Biofuels applied for 20,000 ha of land in the district but only managed to get close to 9,000ha from 11 villages with a population of over 11,200 people, according to local officials.

Initially, district officials had set the compensation mark at 800m/- after an Ardhi University expert evaluation of individual plots but at the end of the compensation process which drew some complaints, less than 300m/- had been paid.

Targeting to supply the European Union market, SBF planned to invest 20 million British pounds by 2012 to produce jatropha seeds for use as raw materials to manufacture biodiesel.

The decision by European Union countries to ensure that at least 20 percent of its energy comes from renewable sources attracted a lot of attention from investors. The EU lured many multinational energy companies such as SBF to invest in renewable energies in developing countries such Tanzania, where almost all such projects are on the verge of collapse or shut down.

Europe’s largest ethanol company, Sekab AB of Sweden is also struggling to sustain its Bagamoyo sugarcane plantations, targeted to produce ethanol for consumption in Europe.

Daily News

Philippine National Oil Company abandons 'unviable' jatropha plans

by Amy R. Remo

PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp, the biofuels arm of Philippine National Oil Company has abandoned plans to develop jatropha as a possible biofuel source.

The company, after undertaking initial studies, found that the plan was not viable. It now intends to use the remaining funds earmarked for jatropha in developing other possible fuel alternatives.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras said PNOC-AFC was now “out” of the agreements and contracts it previously signed for the development of jatropha.

The company is currently studying the viability of sorghum, kamoteng kahoy and other plants as possible biofuels feedstock.

For biodiesel, the government is considering algae as a possible alternative fuel. “But there will be no massive investment for now. We will first study our options,” Almendras said.

This means, the remaining P400 million from the P1 billion budget allocated for the development of jatropha back in 2009 will not be used unless the other possible raw materials for biofuels are already proven viable.

The passage of the Biofuels Law in 2006 prompted several companies to look into and develop jatropha as an alternative fuel. PNOC-AFC, as the biofuels arm of Philippine National Oil Co., was tasked to promote and accelerate the use of biofuels to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuel.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Canadian investor gains, then loses Kenyan community's support for jatropha project

The Nairobi Start reports that Tana River councillors have asked Kenya's National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) not to revoke a biofuel project licence in the area. Led by Tana River County Council chairman Salim Golo, they said they are happy with the project to be carried out on 160,000 hectares. The jatropha plant project is supposed to start on 10,000 hectares and later be scaled up to 50,000 hectares, with the remaining land integrating agriculture and wildlife.

Golo accused Nature Kenya, an NGO, of petitioning NEMA to revoke the license.

Nature Kenya, the operating name of the East Africa Natural History Society, expresses concern on its website about the environmental impacts of the proposed investment.   

''NEMA’s approval of the cultivation of 10,000 hectares of jatropha curcas at the Tana Delta will not only see the displacement of the local community, but the destruction of a unique ecosystem that holds 345 bird species include 22 water bird species present in internationally important numbers, '' it says.

The Nairobi Star quotes council chairman Golo as saying, "We have a lease agreement with Bedford Biofuel to plant jatropha in the area. What does Nature Kenya want? They have been in the Tana delta for many years and have never assisted us."

The lease agreement will last 45 years. The councillors said that the area chosen for the project is dry and currently facing bush clearing that would in the near future leave the land bare. Kenneth Pakia, a resident who accompanied the councillors, said the jatropha plant would provide cover and assist the ecosystem sustain the environment.

Golo said the arrival of Bedford Biofuel, a Canadian investor, had enabled the six ranches where the project will be carried out to pay Sh2.6 million in rates to the Tana River County Council. "How would that have happened without this initiative?" Golo asked.

The project will employ more than 14,000 locals Golo said, adding that it resonates well with devolved county governments. The councillors denied that there are any squatters on the land to be evicted. NEMA recently announced that it has suspended two top managers for issuing the licence to Bedford Biofuels, but the company has challenged NEMA chairman Francis ole Kaparo to explain how the process was irregular.

Nature Kenya argues that jatropha cannot thrive under the area's coastal conditions, and that therefore the mooted investment is a waste of land that should instead be used for food crop agriculture. It also says that an ecological land use plan should be put in place first. 


In making its first argument Nature Kenya is taking advantage of the fact that one of the most criticized aspects of biofuel crops is that they are not being planted on 'marginal land' suited for little else as often claimed, but are actually taking up prime land which should be used for growing food. 

A report in Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper of September 6 said NEMA had since withdrawn its support for the project on environmental grounds. The same report indicated that on learning of NEMA's position, Tana River County Council had also revised its initial support, accusing Bedford Biofuel of giving them a biased report which did not include NEMA's stance.

Council chairman Golo said, ''INitially we thought  it was an environmentally friendly project. Now that we have heard of NEMA's stand, as leaders we need to support the environmental agency. The proprietors only told us of their side of the story without telling us the technical report from NEMA.''

Elder Swaleh Racha accused the investors of causing dissension within the community. He said proper consultations had not been made, and that even those who supported the project were not fully aware of all its consequences.

African Agriculture

Have we seen the end of jatropha as a potential biofuel?

by Brian Westenhaus

According to Promode Kant from the Institute of Green Economy in India and Shuirong Wu of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, some 12.8 million ha (49,421 square miles) are expected to be planted with jatropha by 2015. Most anyone would be thrilled that such a large area is going to support jatropha oil for fuel production and offer incomes to subsistent farmers.

But it’s not looking good. One wonders how that can be.

The report is authored by Wu and Kant in an article published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, ‘The Extraordinary Collapse of Jatropha as a Global Biofuel.’

For India the story starts in 2003 with the decision by the Planning Commission of India to introduce mandatory biofuel blending over increasingly larger parts of the country with a target of 30% by 2020. The Planning Commission pushed for jatropha as it was considered to be high, early yielding, nonbrowsable and requiring little irrigation and even less management.

That followed with encouraging millions of marginal farmers and landless people to plant Jatropha across India. In 2006, China decided to meet 15% of its transportation energy needs by 2020 and, following India’s example, focused on jatropha, with plans to raise it on more than 1 million ha of marginal lands. Other developing countries took similar measures, in the hope that the crop would provide enhanced income for farmers as well as renewable energy. By 2008, Jatropha had been planted on more than an estimated 900,000 ha, of which 85% was in Asia, 13% in Africa and the rest in Latin America.

What happened in India was the provisions of mandatory blending could not be enforced because seed production fell far short of the expectation. Very little oil, very little blending obviously. A recent study has reported jatropha cultivation has been discontinued by 85% of the jatropha farmers in India.

Things look little better in China where very little production of biodiesel from jatropha seed oil can be found.

To make the potential matters worse some real research has come in from Tanzania where jatropha research found the net present value of a five-year investment in jatropha plantation was negative, with a loss of US$ 65 per ha on lands with yields of 2 tons/ha of seeds and only slightly beneficial at US$9 per ha with yields of 3 tons. Its even more discouraging when the average expected jatropha seed yield on poor barren soils is only 1.7 to 2.2 tons/ha.

There is basic reason for this – the plant has not been domesticated, hybridized and developed across growing conditions. In comparison, U.S. corn has been in development since before the U.S. Civil War, from the simplest farming practice of saving the best of a crop for the next year’s seed to billions of dollars of investment in genetic study and engineering.

... jatropha is busy self propagating – not busily producing seed oil.

It seems obvious now that a few select areas where jatropha grows and excelled was a basis for a conclusion – by a bureaucracy. The authors offer a story form of indictment saying, “These observations are, however, nothing out of ordinary and should have been anticipated by the Planning Commission of India, the powerful apex body that decides national priorities and allocates funds for them, before taking up such a continent sized program involving millions of low income farmers. But the Commission may have relied too heavily on the opinion of one of its top functionaries, who expected an internal rate of return ranging from 19 to 28% across India. National planners’ enthusiasm for the species rubbed off easily on research organizations and universities that rely heavily on the Planning Commission for funding and some of these institutions themselves became partners in raising jatropha plantations.”

The authors also reach into the motivations, and that is where they depart from your humble writers opinion.

“It appears to be an extreme case of a well intentioned top down climate mitigation approach, undertaken without adequate preparation and ignoring conflict of interest, and adopted in good faith by other countries, gone awry bringing misery to millions of poorest people across the world. And it happened because the principle of “due diligence” before taking up large ventures was ignored everywhere. As climate mitigation and adaptation activities intensify attracting large investments there is danger of such lapses becoming more frequent unless “due diligence” is institutionalized and appropriate protocols developed to avoid conflict of interest of research organizations.”

Maybe the authors are right, but they miss the point. Jatropha very well could develop into a major cash crop offering a bonanza of alternative fuel. But it “ain’t gonna happen” without a common sense approach with research, development, investment in hybridization, genetic engineering and dedication by the supplies of the seed and other inputs, the farmers and oil processors – and finally consumers.

The jatropha catastrophe isn’t about jatropha; it’s about central planning, big government, and the concentration of power. It can backfire with astonishing results:

The whole of the U.S. corn crop, some 40% of the world’s production, takes less than 20,000 square miles. Jatropha is set to be planted across 2 ½ times that area. An average U.S. corn acre makes about 420 gallons of ethanol. The best jatropha makes nearly 75 gallons. That’s something to consider very carefully when biofuels are discussed.

Oil Price

More criticism of Kenya for GMO maize imports, jatropha in grazing areas

by Kevin J Kelley

The global environmental advocacy group Greenpeace is strongly criticising Kenyan authorities for approving the import of genetically modified organisms (GMO).

“The decision by the Kenyan government is short-sighted and irresponsible,” said Greenpeace Africa campaign director Olivia Langhoff. “Instead of falling into the GMO trap, the government should invest in ecological farming and support local farmers, especially small-scale farmers in sustainable farming.”

Greenpeace charges that the new law allowing import of GMO maize can lead to seed contamination.

“The negative impacts on agro biodiversity have been well documented,” Ms Langhoff declares. “If maize imports are critical in the immediate term,” she adds, “food supplies should be from sources as close to the areas affected by famines as possible.”

Kenya on July 1 became the fourth African country to permit imports of GMO crops, joining South Africa, Egypt and Burkina Faso. Supporters of the move say it is essential in helping to stabilise prices and to feed millions of hungry Kenyans.

Separately, a US-based food research organisation is warning that Kenya's pastoralists, already beleaguered by the worst drought in 60 years, could see pieces of their grazing land given over to Western corporations for cultivation of biofuels.

Richard Jonasse, a leader of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, cites a report last year that 502,000 hectares in Kenya have been leased for potential production of jatropha (oil seed).

“While jatropha is a drought-tolerant species, this does not mean that it grows on unused land,” Jonasse writes. “Pastoralists use dry marginal lands to feed their stock. Taking away this grazing land would have a tremendous impact on these herders, linking their very existence to volatile commodities markets in the economic capitals of Europe and North America.”

The Nation

D1 Oils fails to win backing of its auditor over jatropha doubts

by Rowena Mason

Brian Myerson, the activist investor whose funds own 27pc of D1, quit as chairman last year after a failed boardroom coup. D1 said that his son, Nicholas, will be independent and not a representative for his father's funds.

The company will need to raise money this year and next to support the sale of jatropha plant as biodiesel. D1 Oils sold its technology business to two former directors last year.

Ernst & Young yesterday gave a "disclaimer of opinion" on whether the company could continue as a going concern. The auditor identified "significant uncertainties," including the "need to demonstrate that jatropha can deliver sustainable economics for both farmer and industry".

D1 is in the middle of a "business review" due by August. In a board shake-up, the current chairman, Barclay Forrest, will be replaced by Steven Rudofsky, an ex-Glencore trader, as executive chairman.
Martin Jarvis, the chief executive, will become chief operating officer. Brunswick, its longstanding public relations adviser, is no longer working with D1 Oils.

The Telegraph

Mozambique to boost biofuels output

Mozambique plans to boost biofuels production and introduce fuel blending next year in a bid to cut fuel imports, the energy minister said on June 9.

The government expects to save about $22 million in the first year on petrol and diesel imports from the current $500 million it spends annually.

"We have been approached by companies to enter into the production of biofuels, which means that as we increase production levels and the ratio of mixtures, the savings will also be high," Energy Minister Salvador Namburete told Reuters.

Mozambique plans to use jatropha, a biofuel crop, to boost the output.

UK-based Sun Biofuels said in March it plans to produce 2 million litres of fuel from its jatropha plantations in Mozambique's central Manica province by 2018.

Jatropha has been widely heralded as a wonder plant whose cultivation on non-arable land in Africa, Asia and Latin America would provide biodiesel and jobs in poor countries without using farmland needed to feed growing numbers of local people.

Reuters

Namibia bans large-scale jatropha plantations

by Chamwe Kaira

Namibia has banned large scale jatropha-based biofuel projects in its north east until a study on its impact is undertaken, according to the country’s communications ministry.

The southern African nation’s Cabinet recommended a halt to jatropha in the Kavango and Caprivi regions “due to its negative impact on food security, land tenure, and loss of access to communal land; climate change implications; yield rates; and low financial viability,” the ministry said today in an e-mailed statement.

The Namibian government’s study will “determine the suitability of jatropha plant and other fuel plants” in the regions, the ministry said. Plantations of up to 400,000 hectares have been proposed by some investors, the statement said, exceeding the government’s plan of having 63,000 hectares under cultivation by 2013.

Seed harvested from jatropha trees yields oil that can be used in the manufacture of biodiesel.

Bloomberg

British firms lead African biofuel land rush

by Damian Carrington and Stefano Valentino

British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

Half of the 3.2m hectares (ha) of biofuel land identified - in countries from Mozambique to Senegal - is linked to 11 British companies, more than any other country.

Liquid fuels made from plants - such as bioethanol - are hailed by some as environmentally-friendly replacements for fossil fuels. Because they compete for land with crop plants, biofuels have also been linked to record food prices and rising hunger. There are also fears they can increase greenhouse gas emissions.

A market has been created by British and EU laws requiring the blending of rising amounts of biofuels into petrol and diesel, but the rules were condemned as unethical and "backfiring badly" in April by a Nuffield Council on Bioethics commission. In the UK, only 31 per cent of biofuels used meet voluntary environmental standards intended to protect water supplies, soil quality and carbon stocks in the source country.

There are no central records of land acquisitions in Africa, but research by the Guardian revealed the scale of the biofuels rush in sub-Saharan Africa - 100 projects and 50 companies in more than 20 countries.

Crest Global Green Energy has the largest recorded landholding, 900,000ha in Mali, Guinea and Senegal. Tom Stuart, the chief executive, said: "It is true in some cases [that biofuels displace food], but in our projects we 'inter-crop', planting as much food as biofuel on the marginal land we have brought into agricultural use. There is a large social element to our projects, with all the local people needing to be in agreement, and that's normally written into contracts at government level."

Another UK company, Sun Biofuels, leased 8,000ha in Tanzania where it grows Jatropha curcas, a non-edible plant whose oil-rich seeds can be processed into biodiesel. "We'll start harvesting and producing in two years," said Peter Auge, office manager in Tanzania. "The main attraction for us is exporting to Europe."

Claims that J curcas use prevents biofuels competing with food because it grows easily on marginal and arid land unsuitable for other agriculture have been challenged even within the industry. "Growing jatropha in a profitable way on dry lands is a myth. It needs water, fertilisers and pesticides to provide high yields," Auge said. Jamidu Katima, at the University of Dar es Salaam, is critical of biofuels guidelines adopted by Tanzania's government in 2010. "There are no plans to build refineries, nor obligations for foreign investors to reserve part of their output for the domestic market," he said.

Another risk is that biofuel use could increase carbon emissions by increasing destruction of forests when displaced local farmers clear land. The Institute of European Environmental Policy recently said carbon released from deforestation linked to biofuels could exceed carbon savings by 35 per cent in 2011 rising to 60 per cent in 2018. Currently, this indirect impact is not considered in European sustainability guidelines.

James Smith, professor of African and Development Studies at Edinburgh University, said: "Private investment is running far ahead of our knowledge of the impacts of biofuels, such as land dispossession. This action is eroding the UK's position of enlightenment on development issues. I suspect the estimates are actually quite conservative," said Smith.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat junior transport minister, said: "I consider the sustainability of biofuels to be paramount. No biofuel will count towards our targets unless it meets certain sustainability requirements. But we are pushing [Europe] to go further, to reduce the risk of knock-on effects, including deforestation in new areas. Only a tiny proportion - less that 0.1 per cent - of UK biofuel has come from Africa."

As oil prices rise, said Jeremy Woods, a lecturer in bioenergy at Imperial College London, biofuels could boom. "Once oil is over $70 a barrel, conventional and new generation biofuels become cost competitive. When oil and biofuels are competitive, we are into a different world."

Expansion of the biofuels industry has been fuelled by capital raised on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. In the Guardian survey Italy is the next biggest player with seven companies, followed by Germany (six), France (six) and the US (four). Brazil and China have been acquiring land in Africa for biofuels and food but the investigation identified only a handful of established biofuels projects. The database of biofuels projects in Africa was compiled with the help of the University of California Berkeley's Africa Reporting Project.

Some projects provide local benefits through investment, employment and local use of the produce, but many do not, says Lorenzo Cotula at the International Institute for Environment and Development, who recently analysed 12 contracts from African land deals. "Some of the contracts we analysed only contain vague and unenforceable promises." Some have 100-year leases, at very low or free rent and priority access to water, he added. "Extensive commercial plantations dislocate rural communities from their land", said Cotula. "Instead, self-managed biofuels production can offer cheaper energy and complementary sources of income".

The chief executive of Sun Biofuels, Richard Morgans said: "Our company produces sustainable and ethical biofuels - categorically yes. We would welcome higher sustainability standards, but you do have to balance this with economic development. If you are a local [in Tanzania or Mozambique] and need a job, you probably aren't worried about whether the orangutans sleep at night. It's also insulting to say African governments can't run their own affairs."

A community-based approach is embraced by a few investors. "Our farmers in Mozambique are given seedlings to grow jatropha on their own land with the option to sell the seeds back to us," says Chris Hunter, of UK-based Viridesco. "We help smaller plantations that cater to the developing world markets, as opposed to big monocultures that service the developed world's energy needs".

UK companies were the first into Africa in 2005, but this has not been without problems. D1 Oils froze its export plans and started supplying locally in Malawi and Zambia, following the failure in 2009 of its joint-venture with BP, which doubted jatropha's market potential. Last year GEM Biofuels, operating in Madagascar, suspended its LSE quotation for four months.

The revelation of the central role of UK companies in biofuels coincides with a report from Oxfam forecasting that the price of staple foods will more than double in the next 20 years. The report identifies biofuels as a factor and demands that western governments end biofuel policies that divert food to fuel for cars. "We are sleepwalking towards an age of avoidable crisis," said Oxfam's chief executive, Barbara Stocking. "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone. The food system must be overhauled."

Guardian

Expert faults commercial jatropha investments

by Finnigan Wa Simbeye

Jatropha should not replace any crops in arable farms and instead should be cultivated by smallholder farmers as hedges for farms, an expert has warned.

Pamoja Inc Co-Director Jonathan Otto said in Dar es Salaam recently that jatropha as a source of energy for communities is receiving bad media publicity because of large scale commercial investors who are driving farmers off arable land to cultivate the biofuel plant.


Pamoja Inc which is an initiative by the United States Department of Agriculture to help smallholder farmers said a recent ActionAid Kenya report that denounced large scale commercial investments in jatropha is very true because such initiatives are a bad idea for Africa.

"The conclusions of the report you cited, and what we have long stated, is that Jatropha plantations are a bad idea for so many reasons.

This has been true and known for years, and really does not require one more studyto prove it, although we must struggle to prevent land grabs and the conversion of forest land to Jatropha or any plantation crop," Mr Otto noted.

Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives Minister, Professor Jumanne Maghembe supported the idea that large scale commercial jatropha plantations are not viable projects and allayed fears posed by biofuels to food security.


"All over the world, it is evident that you cannot make money from jatropha.., it's not a profitable business," Prof Maghembe argued. He denounced large scale commercial investments in jatropha cultivation going on in the countryside and warned that such project are likely to fail.

Maghembe said his ministry will ensure that no prime land or food crop is used for biofuel production because both local and international markets for food are offering better incentives.

"Food prices are skyrocketing and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future, our goal is to boost production and supply such markets," he pointed out.

Supporting the idea of denouncing Jatropha plantations as controversial investments, Otto argued that Europe has a stake in encouraging such practices because of the bloc's Energy Directive of 2008 which requires that 10 per cent of transport energy come from renewable sources.


The European Commission has however distanced itself from such criticism pointing out that a renewable energy source is not necessarily jatropha because its directive simply singles out renewable energy sources and not jatropha.

Mr Otto, however noted that there has been general confusion by critics of jatropha cultivation as a renewable energy source because they consider the biofuel as a crop.

"When people call Jatropha a crop, you can be sure they are going in the wrong direction. A crop is grown in fields. Jatropha is best grown in hedges around fields, as noted earlier, in a way that protests field crops rather than replacing them," he argued.

The Pamoja Inc co-Director expressed optimism that one day, large scale commercial jatropha plantations will go so in such a way that the bad media attention associated with such investments which are accused of land grabbing disappear as well.


"In a country where over 90 per cent of all fuel consumed is for domestic energy, the priority need is not for biodiesel but for safe, renewable cooking fuel.

Yet I calculate that if three million small farmers grew Jatropha as noted above, Tanzania would be self-sufficient in biodiesel as well -- with no large plantations required. It is not a choice of food versus fuel.

We need both food and fuel to survive and thrive," he argued. In a report titled, 'Renewable Wonder Fuel Could Cause Six Times More Carbon Emissions Than Fossil Fuels,' ActionAid, Nature Kenya and RSPB said jatropha investors evict communities from their land to grow the biofuel.

The report which is a result of a study analysis on whether biofuels made from jatropha grown at a proposed plantation in the Dakatcha Woodlands in Kenya would save emissions when compared to fossil fuels, pointed out that the argument is futile.

"Taking into account the emissions produced throughout the production and consumption process, the study found that jatropha would emit between 2.5 and 6 times more greenhouse gases, depending on how the land was used before the jatropha was planted," the report said.

It stated that Dakatcha is home to over 20,000 people and is the ancestral land of the indigenous minority Watha and Giriama tribes who face eviction for a jatropha plantation which will not only evict them from their land, but also destroy their livelihoods and sacred burial sites.

But Otto argued that such pollution is only limited to large scale investors who cut down natural forest plantations to replace them with jatropha plantations.


allafrica.com

Ghana: Jatropha biofuel push faces protests

by Suleiman Mustapha

In Ghana, whether the biofuel crop jatropha will pluck rural farmers from poverty and reduce carbon emissions or displace farmers and gobble up land that could produce food depends very much on who you ask.

For Iddrisu Issifu, who recently handed over his 10 acres to Norwegian-owned Biofuel Africa Limited for jatropha cultivation, the arrival of this drought-resistant tree that produces an oil that can be made into diesel represents a break from constant battles against the vagaries of maize production, particularly as weather patterns shift in response to climate change.

The crop switch also promises greater financial stability for his children, the 43-year-old said, since the Norwegian company has promised to buy the jatropha he cultivates.

But jatropha has arrived rather more ominously in the life of sorghum farmer Salifu Kongom. He says his local chief ordered him off his eight acres of communally-owned land at Kpatcha to another spot nearby after striking a land deal with the same Norwegian company.

“I have been farming there for several years now. How can I just leave and go and start again all over at another place? This is not fair!” the 38-year-old farmer fumed in an interview in the capital, Accra, where he gathered with other anti-jatropha campaigners to describe his experience.

Ghana is set to host one million hectares of jatropha plantations under existing agreements between the government and foreign-owned companies. The plant, grown from Brazil to the Philippines, produces an oily seed that can be crushed and the oil used to make diesel fuel. The remains of the crushed seed can then be used for fertilizer or animal feed.

Growing biofuels like jatropha is seen as a way to curb fossil fuel emissions, limit climate change and boost farmer incomes.

But the mixed reactions among farmers in Ghana parallel a wider debate about the crop’s value, particularly given recent reports suggesting it is not as hardy, climate-friendly and food security-neutral a crop as once hoped.

The latest report, from Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, ActionAid and Nature Kenya, suggested this month that biofuels made from jatropha grown at a proposed plantation in Kenya’s Dakatcha Woodlands could generate between two and a half to six times more greenhouse gases than a similar amount of fossil fuels.

That is because trees will have to be cut to make room for the crop and because of other emissions from the jatropha production and consumption process, the report said.

Promoters of jatropha say the plant can withstand tough, arid conditions not tolerated by food crops, so can be grown on land unsuitable for food production. But critics say it is temperature sensitive, requires fertilizer to thrive and generates a relatively low yield when grown on marginal lands. Such problems have dented its former image as a biofuel wonder crop.

The problems are one reason a noisy anti-jatropha campaign in Ghana by trade unionists and activists is gaining ground, even as investors say that backing away from jatropha would be to the country’s own economic detriment, particularly with the European Union planning to double its use of biofuels by 2020.

Steinar Kolnes, the Norwegian co-owner of Biofuel Africa, says he came up empty-handed after a recent search for European investors in his Ghanaian jatropha enterprise. He has resorted to planting maize, rice and vegetables – crops that are experiencing worldwide price hikes - on some of the land his company bought for biofuel production.

He said civil society organizations in Ghana had scared away investors with “unfounded allegations” about how the land was acquired.

“We have not taken anybody’s land by force,” he said in a telephone interview. “We buy the lands from the chiefs and the real owners based on transparent negotiations.”

He said his company has 660 hectares (1,631 acres) of jatropha under cultivation. But, faced with opposition to the company’s plans in Ghana, he has used some of the remainder of land acquired for jatropha to instead plant maize and other cereals. He said the company planned to plant 2,550 hectares (6,300 acres) of maize, rice and soybeans each year, and expected to generate between 6,000 and 8,000 tons of food a year.

Environmental activists say they fear growth in jatropha production will rob Ghana of biodiversity by reducing the number of crops grown, and will lead to greater use of farm chemicals.

“We are apprehensive of the danger associated with … land acquisition for large-scale plantations, especially jatropha for bio-fuel production in the country, said David Eli, chairman of Ghana’s Food Security Policy Advocacy Network (FoodSPAN).

"This trend is not healthy for the fight against food insecurity, environmental degradation and poverty in the country,” he said.

Similarly, representatives of Ghana’s General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) worry that the sale of 10,000 hectares of maize cropland to Biofuel Africa Limited at Jimle/Kpacha, in the Yendi District of Ghana’s Northern region, will dent the country’s food production and entice more chiefs to sell farmland for biofuel production.

GAWU General Secretary Kingsley offei-Nkansah said Kusawgu in the Central Gonja region and Makango in the Gonja East district, also were at risk of losing arable land to biofuel production at a time of rising food prices. Both regions are in the north of Ghana.

Campaigners see the recent creation of jatropha plantations in Togo, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast and Niger as a threat to food production in the region generally.

“We do not understand how our governments can willingly take our food, land and water to meet the fuel luxuries of the wealthy in the North, when we already face problems of food security and environmental destruction at home”, said Anna Antwie of ActionAid Ghana.

Ghana’s push into biofuels presents a risk that indigenous crop and grazing systems will be lost to jatropha monocultures, she said.

Farmers, however, remain divided about the benefits of jatropha production, suggesting the debate in Ghana is far from over.

Even as Kongom, a communal farmer, protests the loss of his land, Issifu, who sold his land, is celebrating the end of his food-producing years and a move into jatropha production thanks to foreign investors.

“Nowadays, we do not get good prices for our farm produce,” he said. That makes jatropha a more attractive option, he said.

Alertnet

Kenyans fear biofuel expansion in woodlands area

by Will Ross

Sitting in the shade of a tree beside his thatched mud hut in in Kenya's Dakatcha Woodlands, Joshua Kahindi Pekeshe is defiant.

"We are not going to let this land go even if it means shedding blood," he said. "Land is very important to us. We farm and get our livelihood from it. On this land we bury our dead."

He is one of the many people opposed to the creation of a large biofuel plantation in the area, about an hour's drive inland from the coastal town of Malindi.

It is an arid area and home to some 20,000 people as well as globally threatened animal and bird species. Ambitious goals

An Italian company has asked the authorities for permission to lease 50,000 hectares there to grow jatropha, whose seeds are rich in oil that can be turned into bio-diesel.

This plant, originally from South America, has long been grown in Africa as a hedge to keep out animals - goats stay well away as it is poisonous. The area affected is community land which is being held in trust by the local council.

Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd is 100%-owned by the Milan-based Nuove Iniziative Industriali SRL.

It has leased almost a million hectares in Africa; jatropha oil from a plantation in Senegal is being supplied to the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea. Other companies have leased land for the same purpose in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, as well as in India.

This expansion has been spurred by the European Union, which has set ambitious goals for lowering greenhouse gas emissions and reducing its reliance on imported oil. The 27 EU nations have signed up to a directive which states that by 2020, 20% of fuel should be from sustainable sources.

Why is Africa affected? Because it is difficult to find 50,000 hectares of available land to grow a biofuel crop in, for example, the UK or Italy. But campaign groups have labelled some of the projects in Africa "land grabs" with dire consequences for the often voiceless African communities.

Some ask: "Why 'feed' a car in Europe when hunger at home is still a reality?"

"Our future is no longer in our hands. We have been told we have to move because they want to plant jatropha here," said 27-year-old Merciline Koi, a mother of two, who added that there had been no offer of compensation for leaving her home in Dakatcha Woodlands.

Kenya Jetropha Energy Ltd says the negotiations are over - the government has given the green light for a pilot project to start with 10,000 hectares and all it is waiting for now is the final documentation.

The company says hundreds of permanent and thousands of seasonal jobs will be created and it denies that anyone will be displaced by the project.

"We want to protect the houses and the private property. We will farm around the houses," Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd head Girardello Adriano told the BBC from Milan.

"We are helping these people. They are very happy for this project. No-one will be moved." How green are biofuels?

According to the Kenyan government's environment watchdog, the deal has not yet been sealed. It turned down the initial 50,000-hectare request citing concerns over the impact on the environment and the sustainability of the project.

The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies” Chris Coxon ActionAid

"We were recommending 1,000 hectares... We have told them to justify if the number has to change and that is why we haven't approved the project up to now," said Benjamin Malwa Langwen, of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

However, there are now fresh calls for the Dakatcha project to be scrapped as new research casts doubt on whether jatropha is really a greener alternative to oil.

The anti-poverty campaign group ActionAid and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) commissioned a report to investigate just how green the jatropha project in Kenya's Dakatcha woodlands would be.

The study by the consultancy group North Energy found that jatropha would emit between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases when compared to fossil fuels.

This is partly because large amounts of carbon are stored in the woodlands' vegetation and soil but the plantation would mean clearing the land of this vegetation.

"The report shows that EU policies are foolish policies because they are not reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the EU is proclaiming," said ActionAid's Chris Coxon.

"The proposed biofuel plantation will devastate the woodlands, driving the globally threatened Clarke's Weaver bird to extinction and depriving thousands of local people of their livelihoods," said Helen Byron of the RSPB.

In response, the EU Commission defended its energy policy as "the most comprehensive and advanced sustainability scheme for biofuels anywhere in the world". Unorthodox methods

At the remote Mulunguni primary school, which lies within the Dakatcha Woodlands, several new classrooms and pit latrines have just been built. They were part funded by the European Union - the very organisation which is now accused of pushing policies which locals fear could see the school closed down.

"My worry is the displacement of the community. It is not good to build a classroom and then send the pupils away," said the deputy head Godfrey Karissa. "Yes we need jobs. But a farm without a home is not good. You need to have a home before you go to your job."

There are clearly concerns on the ground that once the lease is signed, the population will be at the mercy of a profit-driven company.

Ikea says it will not source jatropha oil from Kenya until it can be sure that this will not contribute to the conversion of natural habitats.

"This switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy must never be at the expense of people or the environment," Ikea said in a statement.

The woodlands are also a rich source of material for traditional medicine.

If they feel let down by the government and the local authorities, residents just may turn to unorthodox methods in a bid to keep the land.

"If all the elders come together for one objective, then it is very easy to remove him with our medicines," said Barova Kiribai, a traditional healer, referring to the owner of the Italian biofuels company.

The fate of the people here is in the hands of the Kenyan government and Malindi's municipal council.

It is not surprising they are worried.

Kenya's politicians do not have a good track record when it comes to working in the interests of the people.


BBC

New study casts doubt on jatropha's biofuel benefits

 A new study has put the brakes on a rush by some countries and companies to establish plantations of jatropha, an oil-bearing shrub and cousin of the castor bean bush, as a source of biofuel.

The study by ActionAid, an anti-poverty NGO, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and Nature Kenya, a conservation society, looked at whether biofuel made from jatropha grown in the Dakatcha woodlands in Kenya’s coastal district of Malindi, could indeed be a green fuel.

Chris Coxon of ActionAid said the oil yield of the seed from plants grown on land earmarked for jatropha cultivation in Malindi would determine whether the shrub provided a viable alternative to fossil fuel.

Previous land use was another critical factor. The study found that throughout the production and consumption process in the Dakatcha woodlands, the jatropha would emit between 2.5 and six times more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels, largely because of clearing the forest, which stores massive amounts of carbon in its vegetation and soil, to make room for the plant.

Other studies have also found that the yield from jatropha can vary considerably, because contrary to the popular perception that it can thrive in semi-arid conditions, the plants need water and nutrients to produce high yields.

So, if an investment in irrigation and fertilizer is required, why not grow food crops instead, the study argued. Much of the biofuel from the Dakatcha woodlands project, when it starts producing, is destined for Europe to meet regional targets for switching to renewable energy.

The study underlined what a joint UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) report on jatropha had found in 2010 - that the shrub was useful as a bio-energy crop for cultivation by small-scale farmers.

ActionAid spokeswoman Natalie Curtis said jatropha could be grown between crops or as a hedge to divide fields, and the oil used as fuel for stoves, irrigation pumps and generators.

But even then, growing jatropha could prove uneconomical if there was no investment in developing higher oil-yielding, non-toxic varieties.

The Kenyan government has suspended clearing the full 50,000 hectares of forest, which would have displaced 20,000 people for the proposed plantation in Dakatcha, pending an environmental impact assessment, the study said.


“What concerns us is the growing move towards massive plantations of jatropha in developing countries,” said Coxon.

Here is a closer look at jatropha and why it has caught the imagination of so many.

How many?

In 2008, jatropha was planted on an estimated 900,000 hectares globally; 760,000 hectares (85 percent of the total) were located in Asia, followed by Africa with 120,000 hectares and Latin America with 20,000 hectares. By 2015, jatropha would be planted on a projected 12.8 million hectares, according to an FAO report.

By comparison, maize, one of the world’s major staple grain crops, is planted on more than 160 million hectares.

In another four years, Indonesia will be the largest jatropha producing country in Asia. In Africa, Ghana and Madagascar will be the biggest producers, while Brazil will be the main producer in Latin America.

Why jatropha?

Jatropha has a long history of being recognized as a substitute for fossil fuel. During the Second World War it was used as a replacement for diesel in Madagascar, Benin and Cape Verde, while its glycerine by-product was used to make nitro-glycerine, used in explosives and medicines for treating heart conditions.

FAO said jatropha had gained some ground as a source of oil for producing biodiesel because of the common perception that it could be grown in semi-arid regions with low nutrient requirements and little care.

Jatropha's extensive roots allow it to reach water deeper in the soil and extract leached mineral nutrients unavailable to many other plants. The surface roots also help bind the soil and can reduce erosion. Compared to other biofuel crops such as sugarcane, it requires less water.

It is a non-edible crop, “So the biodiesel sector does not compete with food and feed use of this crop,” said Simla Tokgoz, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank. Other feedstocks used in biodiesel production are rapeseed, soybean, coconut, and palm.

Jatropha is still in the early stages of development as a biofuel but is expected to be a less expensive source for biodiesel production, which could increase profitability, Tokgoz said.

Jatropha oil can be used directly in some diesel engines without being converted into biodiesel, but because it has a higher viscosity than mineral diesel, it works better in tropical environments, where temperatures are higher.

Is it a viable alternative?

Large-scale biodiesel production will need more water, and in water-stressed conditions this could lead to conflict. The FAO/IFAD report said jatropha biodiesel conformed to the required European and USA quality standards, but cautioned that "It is not a technology suited to resource-poor communities in developing countries."

Biodiesel production also requires expertise, equipment, and the ability to handle large quantities of dangerous chemicals such as toxic methanol and highly corrosive sodium hydroxide.

When comparisons are made of the return on labour input Jatropha performs poorly against other biofuel feedstocks, but much depends on the level of yields, which need to be improved, the FAO/IFAD report said.

Jatropha has a marketable non-edible by-product, but it is less valuable than canola, for example, which can be consumed by animals, said Tokgoz.

Instead of competing for agricultural land, or removing forests or displacing communities, Tokgoz suggested planting government wasteland or contract farming using small- and medium-scale farmers. But again, this would mean investment in irrigation, inputs and efforts to improve yields.

Jatropha is regarded by many as an invasive plant and has been declared a noxious weed in parts of Australia, FAO pointed out. South Africa has banned its commercial production.

IRIN

Sun Biofuels to expand African jatropha planting fivefold

by Fred Katerere

Sun Biofuels Ltd. aims to expand its cultivation of jatropha plants in Mozambique and Tanzania almost fivefold by 2018, Business Development Director Harry Stourton said.

The company intends to raise sown areas in the two countries to 20,000 hectares (49,421 acres) from 4,500 hectares, he said yesterday in an interview in the Mozambican capital of Maputo. It now grows jatropha on 2,500 hectares in the central Mozambican province of Chimoio and on 2,000 hectares in Tanzania’s Kisarwe district, west of Dar es Salaam, he said.

“We would like to increase our planted area to 10,000 hectares in each country, and this will produce 40,000 tons of oil,” said Stourton. “We expect to have the first commercial press in Mozambique on 1,000 hectares next year, where we expect 300 tons of oil.”

Sun Biofuels is backed by Trading Emissions Plc, a London- listed fund focused on environmental assets that first invested in the company in 2006. The oil pressed from 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) of jatropha seeds can make 1 liter (0.3 gallon) of biodiesel, according to the Renewable Energy U.K. website.

In Mozambique, Sun Biofuels has signed a memorandum of understanding to supply state-owned Petroleos de Mocambique SA. The London-based company also has prospects for exports to Europe and India, Stourton said.

“People are asking us every day if they can buy our fuel,” he said.

A regulation governing mixing of biofuels and fossil fuels was before ministers for approval, Salvador Namburete, Mozambique’s energy minister, said Feb. 27.

Businessweek