Erhard Seilar, chief executive of the Southern African Biofuels Association, said the region’s farming sector stood to gain most from the growth of the fledgling sector, which has been touted as a partial solution to Africa’s energy problems.

“In our view, biofuels offer the largest stable market for agriculture in southern Africa,” Seilar told the 4th African biofuels conference. “Biodiesel and bioethanol producers are also potential co-generators of electricity.”

He said farmers in the region needed to start growing crops that would be specifically used to make biofuels, and calm fears about biofuels production threatening food security.

Hopes are high that the growth of the biofuel industry in Africa could reduce the continent’s reliance on expensive fuel imports through the use of biodiesel and bioethanol.

Africa is a minor biofuel producer with an ageing vehicle fleet largely run on diesel, and ill-adapted for conversion to biofuel use.

However, some countries like Malawi have been producing sugarcane-based ethanol for more than 30 years, and a new shift towards the use of jatropha – a non-food crop whose oil can be used to produce biodiesel and which poses less of a threat to food security – is emerging.

Experts say Africa is well-suited to biofuel production because it has plenty of available land, a climate fit for different biofuel feedstocks, and low labour costs.

But investment in the sector has been hampered by poor infrastructure, underdeveloped legislation and a loose regulatory framework.

Farming groups and companies in the industry have urged governments to fast track policies and laws to develop the continent’s biofuels sector.

Some experts said governments were concerned about food security, and biofuels lobby groups need to find a way of assuring governments that food security would not be affected.

“One of the biggest problems that we have is the lack of political will, particularly in the southern and central Africa context,” Adrian Wynne, industrial affairs director at the South Africa Canegrowers Association’s said.

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If agreed, the deal could become one of the biggest farming land ventures by an Asian or Middle Eastern country in Africa.

“China has approached the Zambian government to plant two million hectares of jatropha in Zambia,” BAZ director Tyson Chisambo told Reuters on the sidelines of a biofuels conference.

“We are still waiting for more details,” he said.

Jatropha is a non-food crop whose oil can be used to produce biodiesel. It can be grown on semiarid land and poses less of a threat to food production than other biofuel feedstocks such as grains and vegetable oils, supporters argue.

Chisambo said Zambia currently had only 10,000 hectares under jatropha, though his association was lobbying for an increase in the acreage.

“We have investors in biofuels from some other countries such as Australia, and there are companies supporting outgrower schemes in the country, so it is a work in progress,” he said.

Zambia is well-endowed with both surface and underground water, and its climate is suited to a wide range of crops including wheat, soya bean, cotton, jatropha and sugar cane.

Currently only 15 per cent of the 25 million hectares of arable land are being used for food crop production, a Frost & Sullivan analysis said.

Chinese markets remain hungry for crops grown in Africa and there is debate over whether the money, jobs and expertise they bring will help or just exploit the world’s poorest continent.

South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics had planned to lease a million hectares of Madagascar – equivalent to the size of Qatar – to grow food, reducing the Asian country’s dependence on U. S. or South American imports.

But the island’s new leader, Andry Rajoelina, called off the deal, saying the land was neither for rent nor sale, exposing the risks of such ventures in Africa.

Biofuels promise

Chisambo told the conference earlier that Zambia’s government had approved an energy policy which incorporates renewable energy and biofuels.

It has allowed for biofuels to be traded as a petroleum product and defined standards for biodiesel and bioethanol.

He said Zambia still needed to develop proper incentives and define blending ratios and time-lines. Possible incentives for the sector included putting in place duty free arrangements for machinery imports and funding incentives, he said.

“We are looking at things like interest-free loans or long term payment plans to encourage investment,” he said.

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