Biofuel project set for Coast

• ADC seeking foreign investor to put up plant on huge tract

The Agricultural Development Corporation plans to use 500,000 acres of its land in the Coast Province to produce bio-diesel.

ADC managing director, William Kirwa, said the company was sourcing for a foreign investor to partner with in establishing a biodiesel manufacturing plant in the area.

The move by ADC comes after a recent report by Britain-based Forest Peoples Programme that the world will need a minimum of 515 million more hectares by 2030 to grow food, biofuel and wood products.

The report says crops that produce biofuel alone will require an additional 30 to 50 million hectares of new productivity land.

“High fuel prices are intensifying land deforestation and encroachment on an unprecedented scale for production of biofuel,” notes the report.

Mr Kirwa disclosed the plans last Friday during the launch of an agribusiness project at Endebbes in Kwanza that has seen about 9,000 households benefit. Donors and the ADC have put in about Sh300 million to support the project.

Investment

Elsewhere Saudi private sector company Hail Agricultural Development Co (Hadco) has picked Sudan for its first investment in farming abroad under a Saudi government scheme to ensure steady food imports.

Reuters quoted the company as saying it will invest about $45 million in the project.

The Saudi government has been encouraging private and public firms to invest in farm projects abroad after the kingdom last year abandoned a 30-year self-sufficiency programme in wheat which coincided with a surge in global prices of grains.