Kenya has moved closer to joining the the biofuels gravy train with the establishment of a national task force on the growing of jatropha in the country's arid and semi arid regions.

Use of jatropha in the manufacture of biofuels is aimed at preventing Kenya from falling into the trap of food insecurity as green fuels industry eats into the food crops stock.

Mr George Wachira, the general manager of the Petroleum Institute of East Africa (PIEA) said the jatropha project had attracted the attention of a number of large producers of biofuels in Europe and the Americas.

The committee, set up under the PIEA, is expected to safeguard the interests of both small and large scale growers as well as manage the entry of biofuels into the local petroleum market.

Besides, the committee will also explore the opportunities for sale of carbon credits either through direct exports or local certification.

"What is urgently needed to set this project rolling are fiscal policies to support bio fuels," said Mr Wachira. "A well-managed bios industry should compete favourably with alternative source of fuels such as petroleum without harming the enviromnent or the country's food security."

Scientists are warning that climate change and a steady rise in the human and animal population may trigger a global food crisis in the next 50 years.

Bio fuels are a renewable energy source and can be sourced from crops like Maize, Soyabeans and sugarcane. Applications are currently being developed for bio diesel, ethanol and hydrogen.

To this end, Mumias Sugar Company-mainly keen on export markets, plans to develop a Sh2 billion bio ethanol plant before the end of 2008.

To keep up with the growth in human population, more food will have to be produced worldwide over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years combined, the experts said.

In many countries, a combination of poor farming practices and deforestation will be exacerbated by climate change to steadily degrade soil fertility, leaving vast areas unsuitable for crops or grazing. Competition over sparse resources could also spark conflicts and environmental destruction.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says 854 million people do not have sufficient food for an active and healthy life.

The global population has risen substantially in recent decades. Between 1980 and 2000 it rose from 4.4bn to 6.1bn and food production increased 50 per cent.

By 2050, the population is expected to reach 9bn.India-with the world's second highest population after China, for example, has pledged to meet 10 per cent of its vehicle fuel needs with biofuels.

The UN millennium ecosystem assessment ranked land degradation among the world's greatest environmental challenges, claiming it risked destabilising societies, endangering food security and increasing poverty.

Some 40per cent of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. Among the worst affected regions are Central America, where 75 per cent of land is infertile, Africa, where a fifth of soil is degraded, and Asia, where 11per cent is unsuitable for farming.

Most soil erosions are caused by water, either through flooding or poor irrigation, with the rest lost to winds. Farming practices such as ploughing also damage soil, as does repeated planting in fields, which depletes the soil of nutrients. are what is needed.

They're very well known but not always used."

The project, established in 2005 to promote the cultivation of Jatropha for bio-diesel production throughout the over-grazed, eroded pastoral lands of Kenya.

There are an estimated seven million pastoral population and 80 per cent of Kenya's land mass is ASAL.

Jatropha offers the possibility of reforestation, improving climate and providing a new source of income for a rural people.

Millions of acres of under-used land is available if the project succeeds which would transform the economy of the pastoralist communities, " Peter Moll, Project Head BioDiesel Kenya says.

Initial capital requirements for a hectare of land are small. $150,000 will provide for the tractors, drills, two pick-ups to prepare land and seeds.