Ethiopia to develop biofuels
One of the world’s poorest countries, Ethiopia, is developing biofuel crops on over 500,000 hectares of arid land.
‘Castor oil plants, jatropha and palm oil plants are being developed to reduce land-locked Ethiopia's dependency on imported oil,’ Ephrem Hassen, coordinator of biofuels development in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, comments.
Ethiopia's programme will not use land fit for food production. The nation suffers from food shortages and the government appealed last month for 159,410 tonnes of food to feed some 6.2 million Ethiopians hit by drought.
Non-food crops such as jatropha can be grown on semi-arid land and pose less of a threat to food production than other biofuel feedstocks such as grains and vegetable oils.
Ethiopia has also earmarked some 1.6 million hectares of fertile land for foreign investors willing to develop modern farms with a view to making the country food self-sufficient and for boosting agricultural exports.
In addition, four state-owned sugar estates at Methara, Wonji, Finchaa and Tendaho, have been scaled up to boost their ethanol output, he said.
The country has a limited amount of ethanol produced as a by-product from sugar industries which has been blended with petrol and used as transport fuel.
‘Castor oil plants, jatropha and palm oil plants are being developed to reduce land-locked Ethiopia's dependency on imported oil,’ Ephrem Hassen, coordinator of biofuels development in the Ministry of Mines and Energy, comments.
Ethiopia's programme will not use land fit for food production. The nation suffers from food shortages and the government appealed last month for 159,410 tonnes of food to feed some 6.2 million Ethiopians hit by drought.
Non-food crops such as jatropha can be grown on semi-arid land and pose less of a threat to food production than other biofuel feedstocks such as grains and vegetable oils.
Ethiopia has also earmarked some 1.6 million hectares of fertile land for foreign investors willing to develop modern farms with a view to making the country food self-sufficient and for boosting agricultural exports.
In addition, four state-owned sugar estates at Methara, Wonji, Finchaa and Tendaho, have been scaled up to boost their ethanol output, he said.
The country has a limited amount of ethanol produced as a by-product from sugar industries which has been blended with petrol and used as transport fuel.
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