|
|
| Cassava being farmed |
Working in Partnership with the Ikulu Foundation, Nehemiah Foundation International is developing a
business proposal for ethical investors, who are prepared to support a project which will provide a market for cassava, sweet
potato and sugar cane to the farmers in rural Ikulu chiefdom. These products will be turned into ethanol or biodiesel, products,
whch are in huge world demand.
Investors will help alleviate poverty in some of the most impoverished parts of Nigeria, assisting the development
of health centres, schools, roads and clean water availability to these people.
Interviews have indicated a strong desire for farmers to increase their cassava crop size, which they have recently
reduced due to declining markets. There is clearly capacity for increase and
some districts are extremely bullish about their abilities to increase production. Clearly
new strains of cassava, some of which are designed for ethanol production, are becoming available and this will further increase
crop yield.
At present women are involved
in the cassava crop as the processors. They change cassava into flour and garri,
but the process for ethanol requires simply that ethanol roots are dried into chips, which are easily managed. Women in Ikulu chiefdom have differing views as to their involvement in the project, but the vast majority
indicate their strengths are in handling the commercial aspects of the business, where men will take over the actual farming. Ikulu is an area affected by HIV/AIDS and women who have lost their husbands clearly
have to work both as farmers and processors.
Children
actually farm as a useful leisure activity in Ikulu chiefdom. All said they enjoyed
doing the farming and they had specific parts of their week, where they were involved, which did not interfere with schooling. Southern Kaduna does have
a severe shortage of schools and teachers and in the more remote villages, such as Akurjini, only a few classes of Primary
education are available to children. Interestingly this community is extremely
industrious and clever with their produce, since they must travel several hours to the market on foot.
|
| Children, when asked who farms cassava |
Akurjini villagers are an important group for the
project, as they represent some of the most disadvantaged people in the chiefdom. They
must play a key role in the venture or they will feel only a minimal impact from the project. Their skills are in processing of foods and they have shown great industriousness in taking products and
converting them into light transportable premium goods, to maximise the benefit from their travel challenges. Without their involvement and that of villages like them, education
for their children will be restricted to current levels (Primary 1 to Primary 3) and access to the village will remain as
“motorcycle only”. Dutsen Bako is the district of the chiefdom where
most cassava is grown and it is an area with a wide ethnic mix of nomadics, Christians and Muslims, living harmoniously together. The farmers there were excited by the prospect of being able to team up together in
a cassava-growing co-operative, yet despite their industriousness, their district has never been granted potable water and
this would have to be addressed by this project, as clean water is required in cassava processing. Potable water is unavailable in others of the ten Ikulu districts, but most of all the chiefdom has no
staffed or equipped medical facility and villagers stated categorically that money they earned would go to this as a priority,
if they were fortunate to have an investor in a plant.
Plant
types and Production
A
small plant for a low quality ethanol production would cost as little as N72.5m and would produce around 3,000 litres
of ethanol per day, from 10-12 tonnes of the product, depending on starch content. A
small plant such as this would require around 300 hectares of cassava crop to feed it on an annual basis.
A
larger plant producing 4,000 high quality litres of ethanol would likely cost N155m or more and would require 400 hectares
of cassava. Clearly larger plants are available and many have been set up in
other countries with overseas or national aid. Nigeria is the second largest
producer of cassava after Brazil, the world’s largest ethanol producer, yet there are few ethanol plants as yet in Nigeria. When ethanol is in such high demand, gearing such plants to impact on disadvantaged
rural areas must be a very cost effective strategy for rural development, not simply a sustainable and worthwhile business.
A
larger plant still could easily be sustained in Ikululand, where there are 100,000 or more residents. The assessment of this is beyond the scope of this report, but perhaps 5,000-10000 or even more hectares
of cassava and other biofuel crops could be farmed with appropriate planning and land clearance.
In
addition to this, the development of a biofuel industry in Nigeria, alongside its unwieldy oil industry, could have significant
benefits in overall productivity; as such fuels can be used more cost effectively to support power (NEPA) loss, which is frequent
in Nigeria and Africa. Consistent power brings a more productive culture and
far less downtime.
NNPC
have indicated a willingness to buy any ethanol produced in Ikulu chiefdom, but, as yet, no firm price has been acquired,
nor any indication of the quality requirement. There may also be a local market,
as many machines can be converted to run on ethanol, which may have a beneficial impact on local businesses in Southern Kaduna,
if support services for ethanol conversion can be obtained.
Cassava
produced for ethanol also has by-products, which can be used, so increased production for biofuels will also encourage the
investment in the production of other types of products for transport into Kaduna, Kachia, Kafanchan or further afield.
Current
farmers in Ikulu are unmechanised and some simple investment could increase productivity markedly, not just in cassava, but
in other crops too.
|
| Lack of mechanisation is reducing output |
Why Ethanol?
Ethanol
has a number of advantages over normal petroleum
- It
is not poisonous.
- It
does not cause air pollution or any environmental hazard.
- It
does not contribute to the greenhouse effect problem (CO2 addition to the atmosphere, causing global warming).
- It
has a higher octane rating than petrol as a fuel. That is, ethanol is an octane booster and anti-knocking agent.
- It
is an excellent raw material for synthetic chemicals.
- Ethanol
reduces country’s dependence on petroleum and it is a source of non-oil revenue for any producing country.
If
carefully produced, it is also a self-sustaining fuel, i.e. it costs less energy to produce it than it produces itself. Excellent advances in technology are still to come in ethanol production from scrap
wood chips and cellulose products (weeds, leaves etc.) This will actually enhance
production from cassava, as more of the crop will be able to be turned into ethanol.
The
Kyoto accord has approved of ethanol development as an important means of reducing the levels of global warming.
|
