Pro-Poor Biofuel Crops: Sweet Sorghum and Cassava
Editor’s Note: I was in Houston, TX, last week, celebrating the International Year of the Planet at the first ever joint meeting between the American societies of Soil Science, Geology, Crop Science and Agronomy. With a significant focus on biofuels, this conference was rife with interesting materials.
The Challenge: Find biofuel crops that are “pro-poor.”
One Answer: Crops that can be grown with limited resources by small-scale farmers, can be converted to biofuel with existing cheap technology, and can simultaneously provide food, fuel, and livestock feed.
In my last post I discussed how agriculture could regain its rightful place as the keystone of civilization due to the rise of biofuels over the next 30 years or so. But, in what seems a ridiculously colossal conundrum, hundreds of millions of impoverished people worldwide could face starvation due to competition of fuel land with food land.
In that post, I began to address how to deal with this problem, but didn’t provide any concrete examples — the main reason being that nobody really knows how to solve it yet. Imagine my luck last week when I found myself amidst scientists at a forum on biofuels, food security and poverty who had plenty of good ideas on how to reconcile these two seemingly contradictory issues.
One of the most interesting solutions that cropped up (pun intended — so shoot me) involved what are being dubbed as “pro-poor” biofuel crops. Dr. Mark Winslow covered the pro-poor aspects of sweet sorghum and to Dr. Hernán Ceballos covered the same aspects of the cassava plant.
- Sweet sorghum is an Africa-native plant that produces grain which can be harvested for human consumption. After grain harvest, the stalks can be squeezed for sugar, much like sugarcane, which can then be turned into ethanol. Even after ethanol production, the remaining stalk material can then be pressed and used as a high-quality livestock feed.
- Cassava is a tropical plant that produces bulbous starchy roots. These roots can be eaten by humans and can also be converted to ethanol in much the same way that corn is. The leaves of the cassava plant are called “tropical alfalfa” and are used as livestock feed. The left over stem material is then cut into foot-long pieces and planted in the ground to propagate the plants.
In both cases, these crops are already grown by many impoverished cultures around the world as a source of food and livestock feed, so the agricultural knowledge needed to grow them already exists.
Both crops are grown on land that doesn’t compete with high value food crops such as wheat and rice. And, besides this, neither sweet sorghum or cassava would provide a large enough economic incentive due to biofuel production that major food crop growers would switch over to just growing these instead of staple food crops like wheat and rice.
Without a doubt, pro-poor biofuel crops have several kinks that need to be worked out before they can be widely adopted in developing countries:
- Yields of the fuel-producing parts of the plants need to be increased before they can be economically viable, but through intensive breeding this hurdle is being quickly jumped.
- The infrastructure for transportation of biofuel feedstocks from many hundreds of scattered farms to a central processing facility is no small feat to build. For this to be accomplished, countries need to be convinced that it’s a worthwhile goal enough to pour money into. It may be better to produce only enough fuel for local consumption.
- Many pro-poor biofuel crops are grown in areas that are susceptible to drought. A worldwide source of crop insurance needs to be established so that these farmers are protected in the case of low rainfall. The crops themselves also need to be bred for drought tolerance.
Even with the hurdles, these types of pro-poor biofuel crops represent a promising way for poor farmers to become an integral part of the world energy supply, bring high value back to agricultural products in their respectively impoverished nations, keep food prices low, and provide food from local sources.
Other Posts From the Joint Meeting in Houston:
- How Much Oil is Actually Left On This Planet? Should We Care?
- Biofuels are Here To Stay: What To Do About Food Supply?
- Biofuels And Security: Shedding My Western-Centric Worldview (Opinion)
Image Credits: Pictures from talks by Dr. Mark Winslow and Dr. Hernán Ceballos.
I’d like to expand the controversy by adding a new feedstock for both food and fuel: cattails. All acreoss Africa there are huge infestations of cattails and other aquatic weeds which are all biomass. The Cattail (typha australis) infestation in Lake Chad is the driving force behind the Sahara’s expansion. They cost nothing to grow - you are always fightng to contain them. It is a champion ethanol feedstock, and can readily be made into charcoal where that is most economical. When grown in clean water, cattail is an excellent food crop. I’m circulating a sketchy little plan for financing its clearance and control as a crop. Those interested can download it from http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NV0IDPMW .
I am curious to know whether the panel covered the possibility of Jatropha curcas exploitation in drought-ridden areas in sub-Saharan Africa. This species is known to flourish on marginal lands and consumes much less water than your average sugarcane plantation or other biofuel feedstock resource. In comparison to sweet sorghum and cassava, which are staple food sources, Jatropha (an inedible plant) seems to be a likely competitor in the arena of “pro-poor” biofuel crops. Also, do you know the average fuel yields of both sweet sorghum and cassava per hectare?
Kristina,
Jatropha was not covered at this forum. But I’ve covered it before:
http://gas2.org/2008/10/02/jatropha-from-haitian-voodoo-to-biodiesel-holy-grail/
How would someone go about helping to donate a ethanol still for people in this area?
It surprises me that Jerusalem artichokes are not more widely discussed. The roots are already sold as a delicacy in many food markets, and are rich in starches and sugars. They are also already being used to make booze in some places.
Additionally, the stalks, as well as the roots can be readily used in the “celluline” refining process, making the plant a true “trans-process” resource.
They grow like weeds here in Texas (in fact some farmers and ranchers can’t get rid of them) and are found all over North America, so the viable crop range is very large. I’m sure they can easily be grown in many other parts of the world.