Of late MPs and environmental activists have aired their concerns over increased use of fertile land for biofuels production. Their concerns have been that if left unchecked, the trend of going for biofuel crops at the expense of food crops would sooner than later see the country facing acute food shortages.

At the same time, the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), which supports the formulation and implementation of nationally owned programmes on domestic biogas, is targeting the provision of domestic biogas units to 5,000 households by late next year in Rwanda and Ethiopia.

An SNV East and Southern Africa Biogas fact sheet notes that the support would benefit 25,000 users in those countries. SNV is also assisting Tanzania to develop a national domestic biogas programme.

While it is unclear if the trend towards biofuels investment can in actual fact be checked, since investors pursue profits rather than put into action some state plan for food security, the biogas aspect can indeed be influenced by the government.

The point here is to eradicate the use of charcoal as it is destructive of the environment, and the best positioned units would be institutions, while a national gas cylinder policy and empowering suppliers to bring the commodity would help shift from charcoal to gas use, both natural gas and biogas.

As we have comparable cattle and other resources like Ethiopia or Rwanda, a proper feasibility study and government commitment towards the project should see Tanzania becoming the third after Rwanda and Ethiopia in adopting biogas use.