Spanish company Ferry Group is to invest €42/US$55.2 million in a project for the production of biomass fuel pellets in Bulgaria.
The 3-year project consists of establishing plantations of paulownia trees near the city of Tran. Paulownia is a fast-growing tree used for the commercial production of fuel pellets.
Poor farmers in Mizoram to benefit massively from oil palm plan
The North-eastern state of Mizoram, which is squeezed between Bangladesh and Burma, is one of India's poorest. Already under British rule, Mizoram was considered to be 'backward', because inhabited by 'tribal' people whose lands were not easily accessible and who (successfully) resisted the Raj. This discourse still reigns in India today. Mizoram is located far away from Delhi and Mumbai, geographically as well as conceptually. The state is left to care for itself, and doesn't enjoy the benefits of India's booming economy.These conditions have led all kinds social and political movements to spring up, and the people of Mizoram have been demanding and taking a high degree of independence from the central government. Though poor as it is, the state has one of the highest rates of precipitation on the planet, making it suitable for the cultivation of lucrative energy crops that demand humid conditions and high temperatures. Bamboo is one such crop, and it has been recognized as a major energy crop for the state. Striving towards energy independence, Mizoram aims to fuel its future with the biomass from the woody grass (earlier post).
The climate and soils in Mizoram are also favorable to that other high-potential energy crop, palm oil. The State government has therefor launched a major plan to establish palm plantations with the aim of alleviating poverty. It intends to start exporting the oil to the world market, where demand is growing rapidly, boosted by the thirst for palm oil as a biodiesel feedstock.
The 5-year, €130/US$165 million plan falls under the so-called Mizoram Intodelhna Programme (MIP) (which can be translated as 'Mizoram Self-sufficiency Program'), aimed at enhancing food and fuel security and better livelihoods for poor cultivators.
The Mizoram government is bringing together agro-industrial companies, multinationals and cooperatives to implement the scheme. Godrej Agvovet Limited, Foods Fats and Fertilizers Ltd and Palmtech India have committed to investing €43/US$55 million each to start their work to develop oil palm trees on an area of 100,000 hectares in the Kolasib, Mamit, Serchhip and Lunglei districts of the state. Agriculture minister H. Rammawi says "The detailed survey by the multinationals clearly indicated that the climatic conditions of the state are best suited for the cultivation [of oil palms]".
The agreements between the state and the private companies include the procurement of oil palm planting materials, establishing nurseries, supplying seedlings, providing agronomic assistance to the palm farmers and processing of the oil palm fruits.
Major income boost for poor farmers
State agriculture assistant director P Battacharaya said over 5000 farmers and their families across the state would benefit from the project. He stressed that "within seven years, a farmer is expected to earn a minimum of 50,000 rupees [US$860/US$1100] per annum provided he utilises his two-hectares of land to plant 150 trees for the oil palm cultivation." Average per capita incomes in the state are around 20,000 rupees per year. Mr Battacharaya added that "This oil palm scheme will not only benefit the farmers but also hundreds of unemployed youths across the state." Plantation companies are already recruiting agriculture graduates for this project, offering them monthly salaries of Rs 10,000-15,000 initially:
biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: palm oil :: poverty :: Mizoram ::These companies would also help the farmers avail loan from the commercial and cooperative banks for the cultivation.
Besides, Mr Bhattacharya said the primary objective of this huge project is to control shifting 'Jhum' (slash and burn) cultivation as well as to cultivate alternative crops during the bamboo flowering. (Bamboo flowering, which occurs only once every few decades, is a very dangerous event, because it threatens to destroy the entire crop. This is currently happening in North-eastern India, and it is seen as a real economic catastrophy.)
Meanwhile, the state government has also chalked out various programmes to identify another 10,000 hectares of land for the red oil palm cultivation to be soon tendered among several other global companies.
More information:
The Hindu: Mizoram to export palm oil by 2010 - Sept. 25, 2006
Daily India: Rs.850 mn to tackle bamboo flowering in northeast - Sept. 29, 2006
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Rising oil prices do not only affect transport fuel costs, they also impact the many petrochemical industries that produce the countless plastic goods we use on a daily basis. The manufacture of fossil fuel based plastic products also contributes to CO2 emissions (when the enormous piles of plastic waste are incinerated), and it poses a series of environmental problems. Bioplastics are the obvious alternative, and more attention and research is being devoted to the sector each year. Such biopolymers and bioplastics are becoming an important part of what some call the 
The British entrepreneur and Chairman of the Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson recently announced that the next ten years of profits from his transport business will be used to fight climate change. That will amount to something in the region of 3 billion US Dollars. And with his new Virgin Fuels business he hopes to improve and make new fuels such as cellulosic ethanol and biobutanol.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Making the link: curbing illegal immigration by investing in bioenergy
The 'illegal' immigration of Africans into Europe is one of the greatest tragedies of our times. Tens of thousands of people risk their lives each year, trying to reach the 'promised land'. Thousands of them drown and die during the perilous journey, to wash up ashore on the beaches where well-off European tourists are enjoying the sun and the sea. Those who make it, can expect to live clandestine lives as 'aliens', often exploited by ruthless employers, or they end up in concentration centres as 'sans-papiers'.
Fortress Europe has been debating the difficult issue in-depth for months now, on an EU level, with many different political visions on how to tackle the growing problem in a reasonable and humane way (see the recent Euro-African top on illegal immigration). Broadly speaking, three visions can be distinguished. First there is the idea of an open-door policy which wants to welcome a quotum of Africans who must be helped with their integration into European society and whose stay will result in 'regularisation' (obtaining citizenship) after a few years time ('immigration régulée', a vision shared by many at the center of the political spectrum). Secondly, there is an extremist position which comes down to the 'selection' of those with "useful" skills (such as doctors and nurses), and expulsion or rejection of those Europe can't use ('immigration choisie'). This purely utilitarian position, which threatens to result in an even bigger braindrain, is shared by many on the 'right', most notably by the neoconservatives in France. Finally, the most rational and fundamental position looks at the source of the problem and wants active cooperation and partnerships with the countries of origin. Europe must help these economies and invest in job creation overseas, so that the socio-economic 'push-factors' are diminished in strenght. This position of a shared burden, 'l'immigration partagée', is held by many at the left - and by most African governments.
President Wade shares this last vision, and he is supported in it by former president, African Union leader and chief of La Francophonie, Mr Abdou Diouf. The president thinks bioenergy projects can play a crucial role in eradicating the clandestine emigration of Senegalese youngsters from the rural areas:
Within the framework of an 'immigration partagée', European Union 'development aid' and economic investments in the South would be increased. Bioenergy could be one of the sector where such investments make most sense, for several reasons: the production of liquid and solid biofuels is labor-intensive but results in competitive commodities that Europe can use to diversify its energy portfolio. Such a relationship would actually be a win-win situation, with Europe sharing capital, technology and knowledge, and African partners contributing land and labor. The locally rooted employment opportunities generated by this exchange, could effectively reduce poverty and take away the reasons why so many Africans want to leave their homes, towns and families.
Now President Abdoulaye Wade, who recently created a 'Green OPEC' of non-oil producing African countries, said something very similar when he launched a first 1000 hectare test plantation for biofuels in Ouro Sidy, a rural community in the Matam region of Senegal's Kanel département.
Wade stresses the two main objectives of such projects: to find a solution to the lack of rural energy access, and to eradicate illegal immigration by stimulating employment through biofuels production projects.
This last aspect was elaborated by Adama Sall, minister of the Fonction Publique, of Labor and of Professional Organisations. Sall is also the political leader of the Senegalese Democratic Party of the region mentioned earlier. It is in this capacity that he has undertaken a sensibilisation campaign amongst the youngsters of the Matam region. In particular, he adressed the youngsters of Wagadou, a place inhabited by Soninke who have been very active in building networks that support illegal immigration.
Sall urged the youngsters to invest in the economic development of their own region, instead of trying to emigrate to Europe. A special plan called 'Retour vers l’agriculture' (plan Reva, 'back to agriculture') has been created to stimulate this development, and biofuels play a major role in it. He congratulated the Rural Council of Ouro Sidy for taking prompt action under the plan by establishing a 1000 hectare plantation of energy crops.
Sall and the Rural Council of Konaté are convinced that similar plans will "help these youngsters forget the temptation to emigrate clandestinely, because of the simple fact that numerous jobs will be created and considerable profits should be made." He added that "the development of Senegal must absolutely come from the bottom-up".
Of course, lots of questions remain about how to lobby and link European organisations, investors and politicians to the countries of origin of the many 'illegal' immigrants. The complexity and variety of political visions and policy goals surrounding the issue will not make the task easy. But when African countries start to show that bioenergy projects like the one in Ouro Sidy can effectively contribute to curbing the flow of young emigrants to Europe, we are certain that stakeholders here on the continent will look at the this proposition a bit closer.
More information:
Dossiers on the immigration debate, and on policy options, strategies and visions in Europe can be found on the Euractive/immigration pages: Immigration at Euractiv.
Sivan Kartha and Gerald Leach (Stockholm Environment Institute, 2001), Using Modern Bioenergy to Reduce Rural Poverty [*.pdf].
Le Soleil (Senegal): Production d’énergie alternative : 1000 hectares de terre pour la culture de biocarburant à Ouro Sidy - Oct. 3, 2006
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