Biofuel and Africa – some important issues and knowledge gaps

What is bioenergy?
Bioenergy is produced from biomass including all types of organic matter such as wood, charcoal, energy crops, agricultural and forestry wastes, manure etc. With rising oil prices and climate change bioenergy has emerged as an alternative renewable energy source that can help reduce green house gas emissions.  

There currently exists at least five different forms of biofuel, (i) bio-ethanol, made from sugarcane, wheat, cassava, sorghum and maize that are rich on starch, (ii)   bio-diesel, made from oil rich seeds including soya, oil palm, jatropha   and algae, (iii) bio-gas produced from the biological breakdown of organic matter including waste from plants and wood, (iv) biomethanol made from ceullulosis and (v) bio-hydrogen made from biomass or by converting methane through steam reforming.

The bioenergy forms in focus today and of particular relevance to Africa are bio-ethanol and bio-diesel. These energy forms can be used to fuel car engines, either directly or in some form of blending with other fuels, e.g. petroleum. The emphasis on bioethanol and biodiesel are related to several factors; (i) global techniques are available for their production and the fuels can easily be distributed in existing transport and distribution infrastructure, (ii) they are considered to be renewable energy forms that can substitute non-renewable energy sources, i.e. positive effects on climate change (iii) they require land areas for their production and (iv) the energy, given certain preconditions, is considered to be commercially competitive on a global scale.

As to techniques, today they do not exist to derive biofuels from cellulosic materials such as timber and forest waste products. Such techniques are often termed second generation techniques and current estimates are that they will not become competitive until earliest by 2020. The first generation techniques that generate biofuels and biodiesel have so far been strongly associated with large scale production, for instance in Brazil that has a long experience from production of biofuels from sugar cane and soy beans.

The renewable character of bioenergy and biofuels has made them increasingly attractive in a situation of rising oil prices and climate change. Heavy subsidization of production of such fuels has been provided to farmers in many industrial countries and in the early phases of production as well in Brazil.   Some countries have set expansive targets for the use of biofuels. For instance EU has put a target of reaching 10 per cent of renewable fuels, including biofuels, of total consumption by 2020.

Increasing doubts about the sustainability of biofuels
Increasing doubts, however, about the sustainability of biofuel production in terms bio-diversity and ecological systems, ground water and social and health issues have led the European Environment Agency to ask the EU to suspend its 2020 target. Subsidies for biofuel production in industrialized countries are currently being reduced, making its production in these regions less competitive.   The net energy provided by biofuels has also been questioned by research employing wider energy concepts e.g. such as emergy or historic energy which takes into account the ‘work’ of nature in the generation of biofuels. As well the sustainability of large scale mechanized sugar cane/biofuel production based on large scale pesticide and fertilizer inputs has been challenged.

Bioethanol and biodiesel require vast tracts of land in order to generate volumes of energy for export. So far this has been the major focus in Africa. Bioethanol from sugar cane does require access to well watered land while biodiesel from e.g. jatropha can be generated from lower quality land. Brazil has for decades increased the use of bioethanol in fuelling cars and as well the export of biofuels has generated huge incomes. For Africa the production of biofuels is in its first phase and the focus is mainly on large scale production for export.   The notion is that Africa has vast unused land areas that can be employed for biofuel production in order to generate export incomes, employment for rural people and smallholders and profits for foreign investors.

Is it wise for Africa to use well watered land for production of sugar cane, land that has most often also has a great potential for food production?   Bioethanol from sugar cane highlights the competition for land between food and energy. Such production will require access to large tracts of land which in many African countries are located within village jurisdiction. For instance in Tanzania most of the land that is suitable for biofuel production belong to around 11 000 villages where smallholder production is the mainstay of rural livelihoods. In African countries with community and customary oriented forms of land governance, such as Tanzania, Ethiopia and Mocambique, access to land for foreign investors is problematic if current laws and regulations are to be followed. Access to water is likewise a problem for large scale sugar cane production.

Recent developments
The rush towards biofuel production among foreign investors in Africa has created serious problems for governments to coordinate and guide such production. In many countries investors are on the ground without the existence of policies and guidelines for such production. With the onset of the global economic crisis and dramatic drop in oil prices, the attractiveness of bioethanol for fuel car engines has decreased. The price of bioethanol in some countries is currently even higher than that of petrol, causing consumers to shift away from ethanol.   Some companies, including from Sweden, are already withdrawing from the sector. The Swedish company SEKAB in late February 2009 informed that it will sell its bioethanol production activities in Poland and Tanzania and as well stop its large scale trading of biofuel E85. The global crises may well lead to reduced pressure on biofuel production in Africa for some time, but as prices of oil rise is likely to rise again in the future, the issue biofuel production will once more enter forcefully.

The recent and dramatic global changes may reduce the pressure on Africa as a safety valve for production of alternative energy for rich countries.   Africa has, however, over time been used to generate products and services for others. An almost century long colonization of Africa by European countries aimed to secure raw materials and markets for the latter. The global economic stagnation of the 1970s made Africa, with the help of development assistance, become markets for the products of industrialized countries. Can Africa’s biofuel production this time around be seen as a provider of alternative energy to confront climate change and thus enable the population of rich countries to maintain their high level of consumption?

Urgent research issues
In order to avoid the continuation of the historic scenario of Africa as a provider for others, urgent research on biofuel production in Africa should throw light on some of the following issues;

(i)                  What type of biofuel crop/feedstock is best suited for African needs and at the same time secure an export market and incomes over time?   Can biofuel generation from other crops than sugarcane or those that require well watered lands represent a potential?

(ii)                What scale of production of biofuel can best promote and protect the interests of African smallholders? How can the rights of smallholders to land and water be secured? Can smallholders to a larger extent produce biofuel to generate energy and incomes for their own communities? Can smallholder farmers cooperate with large scale production units to create win-win situations?

(iii)              Can intercropping of biofuel crops with other crops minimize or avoid the reduction in biodiversity, can it help in mitigating climate change, or can biofuel crops be designed so that they both generate food and energy, e.g. as has been developed by ICRISAT for sweet sorghum?

Research on biofuel issues in Africa of relevance to our Network in the process of being launched.   Our Network, the Swedish Interdisciplinary Research Network on Livelihoods and Natural Resource Governance (supported by Sarec/Sida), organized jointly with the Nordic Africa Institute, a workshop on biofuels and smallholders with focus on Africa and lessons from Brazil in early December last year (see program on this webpage). A report of the presentation of this workshop is expected in April/May.

A number of phd and post doc research projects are being launched in Norway and Sweden on biofuel and related issues with a focus of Africa, Latin America and Asia. Hans Morten Haugen at Diakonihjemmet University College in Oslo has received funding from the Norwegian Research Council to conduct research on “Biofuel and human rights – Assessing biofuel plantations in Brazil, Indonesia and Tanzania Applying a Human Rights Impact Assessment”.

Biofuel related research is also under way at the The Norwegian University of Life Sciences at Ås, the University of Gothenburg, Centre for Global Studies and at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala. The latter institution has also taken the lead in a major research program application to the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation which involves four countries in Africa (Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mocambique and Ethiopia) and Brazil and fifteen researchers from seven countries in Africa (as above), Scotland, Norway and Sweden. The title of the application is, “Energy, food and livelihood in African Biofuel Expansion during Climate Change – Balancing the Basics in African Smallholder Agriculture”. The draft program was presented and discussed at the Swedish research network/Nordic Africa Institute workshop on December 4, 2008 and subsequently improved to take account on the comments from participants.