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Uganda: Country to Produce Biofuel From Cassava
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New Vision (Kampala)
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 5 May 2008
Kampala
UGANDAN scientists have received a grant of $94,000 (sh160m) to conduct a regional study to produce bio-fuel out of cassava, reports John Kasozi.
The project will target extracting bio-ethanol for industrial use, as well as producing more nutritious and higher yielding cassava varieties. It is being executed by the National Crops Resources Research Institute, in collaboration with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA).
"The project will concentrate on producing cassava varieties for bio-ethanol and for nutritional use in high quantity," said Dr. Yona Baguma, molecular biologist at the Namulonge-based Institute. "Bio-ethanol will combine starch and alcohol, while nutrition will focus on protein, vitamin C and starch."
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The two-year project starts this month and aims at developing human and infrastructural capacity to improve cassava through biotechnology, including tissue culture.
"Cassava was introduced in Uganda in the 1850s. We are the third largest producer in the region with a total production of 5 million tones," said Dr. Charles Mugoya, ASARECA's programme manager.
Baguma noted that cassava's ability to grow under marginal conditions had made it a popular crop among poor farmers. "cassava is the second most important staple food crop and a major source of income." But diseases and pests have caused a drammatic reduction of cassava harvests in recent years, cutting yields to less than half their potential.
This ranks as ones of the dumbest ideas ever concocted: to turn food produce into biofuel so that people can drive cars and SUVS and pollute the evironment ever the more. What science in this ? This nonsense must be stopped because there no science or economics to support it.
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