Sustainable biodiesel

The aim of this collaborative project is to produce biofuel in a way that supplements farmers' incomes and contributes to poverty alleviation. Geared towards smallholder farmers in Mali, it is a small-scale initiative that can be integrated into existing agricultural activities while minimizing environmental impact.

• How does it work?
• Extra income for smallholders
• Reduced environmental impact
• Prize-winning initiative

How does it work?

Farmers harvest jatropha nuts from the hedgerows that surround their crop fields and sell the nuts to Mali Biocarburant SA, a joint venture company set up by KIT and financed through public and private investments. Mali Biocarburant SA converts the jatropha nuts into fuel which is then sold on the local market. A farmers’ union is a shareholder in the joint venture, and provides services to farmers and ensures that the local population benefits from the initiative.

KIT has been implementing development projects in Mali for several decades. During the 1970s and 1980s, KIT and local partners encouraged farmers to plant jatropha in the hedgerows of their fields and on eroded land. Today, Mali has more than 20,000 kilometres of jatropha hedges.

Extra income for smallholders

This venture aims to develop the market for jatropha nuts by setting up a factory for converting jatropha nuts to biodiesel and selling the fuel on the local market. Farmers benefit directly from the extra income they generate through the sale of the nuts they harvest.

Besides the extra income generated from jatropha nut production, this initiative will generate additional employment and spin-off industries, including:

• building the refinery
• extracting the oil from the jatropha nuts near the harvesting site using mobile presses and transporting it by truck to the factory for refining, factory work and end-product distribution
• selling the ‘press cake’, a by-product of oil production, to farmers for use as organic fertilizer
• a local women’s cooperative is using the by-product glycerine to produce soap
• another group of women have started a jatropha tree nursery, selling the plants to farmers for intercropping or replanting jatropha hedges

Economic development will be also achieved indirectly through ongoing capacity development.

Reduced environmental impact

Mali Biocarburant SA is a considered response to the worldwide trend to convert biomass into fuel.

• Compared to fossil fuels, biofuels are better for the environment, but only if they are produced in a sustainable way.
• This initiative is about generating biofuels from plants that are harvested on kilometres of land stretching along the roadside – or by integrating Jatropha in existing farming systems meanwhile ensuring food security.
• Jatropha is resistant to drought and grows on land where other crops fail. It is therefore ideally suited to holding the soil together and protecting cultivated fields from wind and other erosion factors. 

Prize-winning initiative

Mali Biocarburant won the 2008 Ei van Columbus award in the category 'International Development'. Ei van Columbus is a Dutch prize for sustainable business, awarded binannually to creative and socially responsible enterprises.

Mali Biocarburant was also awarded the 2008 European Business Awards for the Environment (EBAE) in the category 'International Cooperation'. The EBAE is a European award to recognize companies that integrate sustainable development into their activities.