Once the food basket of Africa but now deteriorating with hyper-inflation, cholera and political strife, Zimbabwe seems to be thinking beyond the cloud and bringing up the issue of where the source of fuel will be.
The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe has announced plans to use jatropha to produce up to 10 percent of its fuel needs or 100 million litres of biodiesel per year by 2017.
What is Jatropha?
- A non-food crop whose oil can be used to produce biodiesel.
- Can grow on semi-arid land and poses less of a threat to food production than other biofuel feedstocks such as grains and vegetable oils.
- This creates a huge potential for the use of fallow land that is often arid in African countries.
Zimbabwe & Biofuels
Zimbabwe produced ethanol in the '70s but then stopped because of drought.
This sucks because one can imagine the amount of feedstock that could be extracted from the country.
About Me
- Brian Owino Oduor
- I hold the philosophy that the underdevelopment of the third world creates a blank canvas on which we can redraw some of the flaws that are plaguing the blueprint of the Western world. I am keen on the development of sustainable energy sources in Africa. Energy, in my opinion, is at the crux of developing other facets of African economies that have been for far too long, unfairly stagnant. I also seek to get involved in smarter ways of financing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in African nations while shaping policy and educating the masses. Twitter: BrianOduor
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