Sustainable bio fuel in Mali
13 June 2007
Producing bio fuel that not only supplements farmers’ income and contributes to poverty alleviation but that will also be used locally without taking a toll on the environment. This is the idea behind a new KIT project in West Africa: Mali Biocarburant SA.
Jatropha curcas, or the physic nut, is the raw material used for Malian biofuel. The nuts are supplied by both male and female small-scale farmers to a company that was set up by KIT. They harvest the nuts from the hedgerows that surround their fields to protect them from erosion. In this way, they supplement their income.
Cultivating and processing the nuts does not have any negative impact either on the regular food crops or the environment. Nor is it ‘rainforest fuel. This is the nickname given to fuel that comes from other biomass projects in which the raw material (palm oil, corn) is cultivated on plantations built as a result of chopping down the rain forests. KIT dedicates itself explicitly to small-scale projects geared towards small farmers and integrates its activities with existing agricultural systems. To sum up, this bio fuel is all about yields that are harvested from kilometres of land (stretching along the roadside) and not from hectares of land (which would compete with food crops).
The production company - Mali Biocarburant SA - processes the jatropha nuts and transforms them into oil for fuel which it then distributes locally. The fuel is suitable for generators and cars. The company is financed by the government of the Netherlands (through sponsorship via the PSOM programme) – it is also financed through investments from KIT, the Spoorwegen Pensioenfonds (the pension fund of the Dutch Railway company) and a private company called FM Flowermachines. Partners in Mali consist of a farmers’ association called ULSPP and a private company called Interagro which purchases the fuel and then distributes it.
KIT, Mali & Jatropha
With this project, KIT has taken advantage of the global trend to use biomass as an alternative to fossil fuels. Aside from the fact that fossil fuel supplies will eventually dry up, the other benefits associated with using biofuel are that it is cleaner and will reduce dependency on oil from unstable regions.
KIT has been implementing development projects in Mali for several decades. Developing agriculture, especially in the area of combating erosion, played and continues to play a central role in this respect. It was in this context during the 1970s and 1980s that KIT, together with its local partners, encouraged the farmers to plant jatropha in the hedgerows of their fields and on eroded land. Jatropha is particularly resistant to drought and grows on land where other crops fail. It is therefore ideally suited to hold the soil together and protect cultivated fields from the wind and other erosive elements. Today, Mali has more than 20,000 kilometres of jatropha hedges.
It has been known for quite some time that the jatropha nut can also be used for oil. However, so far production has not progressed any further than the farmsteads and has been primarily for local use. The KIT project is set to change all this. The objective is that Mali Biocarburant SA will help to create a market for jatropha nuts so that they can be used as the raw material for bio fuel.
The company will purchase the harvested nuts from small-scale farmers and will encourage the establishment of new plantings. A factory will be built to transform the seeds into bio fuel. First, the nuts will be processed locally in mobile presses. Then the raw product will be transported to the factory for refining. Studies are still underway to see how the residue can be further processed, for example into soap.
The project was launched in 2007 and will last for three years. It will then be transferred to local partners. In order to set up the company a consultant from KIT was sent out to Mali to act as its Director. A Malian adjunct Director will take over his activities in due course.
Besides, the project must deliver a lot more than just extra income for male and female small-scale farmers. It is also about job opportunities, green energy, incurring fewer losses through the foreign exchange rate, and knowledge about ‘business ventures to combat poverty’. Because it is financed by external partners, aspects of corporate social responsibility also play a role.