Biofuels in Tanzania: Status, Opportunities and Challenges

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Anthony M. Mshandete.J. Appl. Biosci. 2011. Biofuels in Tanzania: Status, Opportunities and challengesfarmed by women, these marginal lands provide criticalsubsistence functions for the rural poor. It have beenrecently reported by Rossi & Lambrou (2008) ongender and equity issues in liquid biofuels that theconversion of marginal lands to plantations for biofuelsproduction “might cause the partial or totaldisplacement of women’s agricultural activities towardsincreasingly marginal lands,” with a negative impact onthe employment and income earning/generation. This islikely to happen due to the fact that the presentemployment status of women in Tanzania is deplorableand the gender bias is a prevalent and significantproblem, with women working twice or triple work daysin the fields than men (Migiro, 2004). On the otherhand if women get employment in biofuel plantations,experiences elsewhere revealed that women tend to bedisadvantaged compared to men, concerningemployment conditions, and there is evidence thatwomen receive less training and instruction than men(AWID, 2008; Rossi & Lambrou, 2008). A recent reportnoted an example from Malaysia where womenrepresent about half the plantation workforce and arepredominantly employed as sprayers of chemicalpesticides and herbicides. Without proper training andsafety equipment, this can result in “seriousimplications for the long-term health of these womenworkers” (AWID, 2008; Rossi & Lambrou, 2008).Additionally, it is also well documented that large-scalemono crop plantations require mostly seasonalworkforce with working conditions mostly deplorable,labor rights non-existent and low payment (ChristianAid, 2009). Already there are concerns of low dailywages payment in Jatropha plantation scheme havebeen reported in Tanzania (Redfern, 2008).Nevertheless, research in Tanzania suggest thatJatropha plantation could provide significant source ofemployment (5 employments per 1ha of Jatropha)since mechanized harvesting of fruits is inefficientbecause fruit do not ripen at the same time and hencehave to picked individually (HakiKazi Catalyst, 2008).On the other hand pilot and experimental projects,mainly by NGOs such as KAKUTE, TaTEDO andcompanies such as Diligent found in Tanzania showspotential to increase access to energy access for thepoor, and even provide sources of income/employmentfor rural households, especially women. For marginalwomen farmers in Tanzania such income/employmentopportunities may still be perceived as relativelyattractive. However, in Tanzania biofuel developmentpolicies should also be consistent with (and, possibly,contribute to) the promotion of gender equality and theempowerment of women. In this regard measuresshould be taken to ensure that women and femaleheadedhouseholds have the same opportunity as menand male-headed households to engage in and benefitfrom the sustainable production of liquid biofuels. Thisis important in light of the increasing feminization of theagricultural workforce and the growing number ofhouseholds headed by females (42% of the total inSouthern Africa), particularly in the poorer and morefood insecure countries of the world (Deutsch et al.,2001) often due to male out-migration or loss of malelabor force due to HIV/AIDS (FAO, 2004). Thereforeensuring women have increased access to and controlover land and other productive assets would improvewomen’s welfare and they’re bargaining power withinthe household and would also improve increaseagricultural productivity.Power and politics on biofuels: Biofuel politicsrelates to the scenario of who has the power to makedecisions on issues pertaining to biofueldevelopment/industry. The politics of biofuels are morecomplicated than superficially seen. The stimulation ofbiofuel production/industry by governments of the worldis purely a political decision of bureaucrats andpoliticians. The political decisions, influence biofuelindustry development in several ways such as in termsof subsidies on the growth of biofuel crops, productionprocesses and the prices at the pump as well as interms of regulatory frameworks/guidelines/policies.Elimination governments could impose barriers successand other necessary interventions in favor of theindustry such as tax incentives.Biofuels production in itself is not bad, it is the way it iscurrently being done that can be so problematic and/orraise concerns by stakeholders. In Tanzania already,over 40 companies/projects have biofuel projects atdifferent parts of the country predominantly along thecoast mainly with Jatropha, sugarcane, sweet sorghumand palm oil as energy crops. Despite this number ofbiofuel investors/projects/initiatives Tanzania’s biofueldevelopment particularly liquid biofuels (ethanol andbiodiesel) are new and is still at infancy as well as notfully understood. There have been evidences of currentbiofuels production displacing local small farmerscreating social-economic issues in Tanzania (Sulle,2009b). It is however also evident that in Tanzaniabiofuel production for local energy consumption isundermined by the obvious intent of multinationalsinternational investors to target foreign markets. Also,there are no plans and/or scant plans to invest in2692
Anthony M. Mshandete.J. Appl. Biosci. 2011. Biofuels in Tanzania: Status, Opportunities and challengesinfrastructure in Tanzania to process biofuels for localuse.In controversial new sectors such as biofuels, thepotentially social and environmental consequences areexpected to be so remarkable that many groups andindividuals from all walks of life are exercised by recentbiofuel developments and intend to engage in thebiofuel debate about where the biofuel sector should go(Caniëls & Romijn, 2009). In Tanzania so far politicians,decision makers, bureaucrats, media (local andinternational), public, civil societies and NGOs aredivided with respect to the current biofueldevelopment/investment by both local and multinationalcompanies. Nevertheless, some members ofparliament, civil societies and activists have alreadywarned against the invasion of arable land bymultinationals seeking to cultivate biofuels whosepriority market is not Tanzania but for export to richeconomies of the West. The concerns had an impact tothe extent that the current state President has recentlyordered all regional authorities to halt current and futurebiofuel projects and acquisition of land from villagersuntil clear biofuel policy is established. On anotherdevelopment linking policy with practice, fieldexperiences and input from different organizations isvital at this early stage of biofuel development in theTanzania. To that effect the NBTF is apparently willingto adapt policy provisions to input generated throughlocal experiences and recommendations fromnumerous workshops, consultations, and stakeholders(such as WWF-Tanzania, Hakiardhi and other NGO’s)discussions and perspectives (Sulle & Nelson,2009a,b). Understandably biofuel investment inTanzania is being encouraged as it has a potential toaid rural development, local livelihood, improve energysecurity and reduce oil imports. However, the waybiofuel investments are being carried out needs to beeffectively coordinated for biofuel industry to benefit abroad section of the society and keep social andenvironment impacts of biofuel investments to aminimum. Therefore the biofuel policy needs to addressthe sustainability concerns about biofuel industry suchas biodiversity, ecological, economic, cultural andenvironmental issues. Highlights of the contributions ofpower and politics on biofuels in Tanzania aresummarized below.• The power imbalances that come into playaround land issues that poor people’s rights areintrinsically under threat by increased demand for landfor biofuels crops.• The biofuels regulations, which could enablepreparation of clear policy on biofuel investments to pindown investors once they have done something againstthe interests of the country so far, are yet to beapproved by the cabinet in Tanzania. Thus, if the rightbiofuels policies were in place, there would be no needto displace farmers.• Investors in Tanzania have been able toreceive necessary investment, land and environmentalapprovals to start biofuel crops plantations even withoutconcrete biofuel policy in Tanzania.• Through linking policy and developmentTanzanian government and foreign donors haveidentified biofuel as priority growth sector and areprepared to provide extensive support at highest levelsto accelerate biofuel investment.• Local government, village councils and villageassemblies (along with the some respective membersof parliament) have been instrumental in facilitation ofinvestors are accessing village lands for biofueldevelopment and have been on a centre stage of theongoing expansion of the biofuel industry in Tanzania.• Tanzanian petroleum supply bill amendment ison the way to allow for the blending of fossil fuels withbiofuels.• The Tanzanian government have initiatives tobe implemented soon which include “agro-ecologicalzoning” to determine specific areas for different uses,including biofuels investments.Sustainability of biofuels: There is a hypothesis thatbiofuels can be produced in a “sustainable” manner ifpolicy makers would choose to do so (Haugen, 2010).The biggest challenge to biofuels sustainability isensuring that high-value land is preserved eitherbecause it stores large amounts of carbon (as doesforest land) or because it is well suited for human foodproduction (Bramble, 2009). In general worldwide typeof feedstock, biodiversity, ecological, economic, culturaland environmental issues are some of the key issuesthat are examined to determine the sustainability ofbiofuels investment. It is well established thatintroducing large-scale agricultural production of anykind can threaten forests and biodiversity, carbonstocks, land and water resources (UNESCO, SCOPE &UNEP, 2009). These impacts have all been identifiedwith biofuel production, whether on wetlands, semi-aridlands or farms land. There are massive impacts onhabitats and biodiversity. Some biofuels crops such assugar cane, soy and palm oil are either directly grown2693
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Biofuels in Tanzania: Status, Opportunities and Challenges

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