# **1 Biofuels in Mali: An overview**

In the last few decades, Mali and its development partners have implemented numerous projects and programs that aimed to develop alternative energy sources (alcohol biofuel and pourghère, etc.). Recently, Mali undertook a reform of its energy sector by setting up a national strategy for the development of biofuels. This strategy resulted in the establishment of a program for valuing pourghère cultivated areas (2004-2008),<sup>8</sup> the elaboration of the national energy policy<sup>9</sup> (2005) and the creation of the national agency for the development of biofuels (ANADEB) (2009). The jatropha industry is still in its infancy. Although the market for the formal commercial sales and trade of jatropha and its oil are weak, many countries including Mali are realizing the large potential of this plant to produce green energy and substituting fossil fuels (hydrocarbons).

## 1.1 Jatropha around the world and in Mali

The cultivation of pourghère was introduced in Mali by the French at the end of the 1930s in the Office du Niger and popularized in 1990s by the German development cooperation organization (GTZ). The plant came to be used as a barrier protecting agricultural areas from livestock damage (sheep, goats, etc.), and soil erosion due to water run-off and wind, particularly in rural areas. It was also used by women as traditional medicine against malaria or general pain. On a global scale in 2008, approximately 900,000 ha were planted, of which 85% were in Asia (Indonesia, Myanmar, India, China). The shrub was thought to cover 120,000 ha in Africa, primarily in Madagascar, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. World production is expected to reach 13 million hectares by 2015. For Africa, Ghana and Madagascar alone will account for 1.1 million of the two million hectares expected for the continent (GEXSI, 2008).<sup>10</sup> It is also interesting to note that farm sizes are on the rise. In 2008, only 11% of jatropha production in Africa was accounted for by large plantations. GEXSI (2008) predicts that in 2013, 38% of production on the continent will be done in large farms, including 23% in plantations of more than 1000 hectares. In 2002, Mali had at its disposal roughly 10,000 kilometers of jatropha shrubs, with a growth rate estimated at approximately 2,000 kilometers per year (Latapie, 2007)<sup>11</sup> . In 2011, field experts estimated that 5,000 of pourghère

> 8 The Programme National de Valorisation Énergétique de la Plante Pourghère (PNVEP) comes within the scope of Malian policies and strategies presented in the Programme National d’Action Environnementale (PNAE), the Cadre Stratégique de Lutte contre la Pauvreté (CSLP) and the promotion of the Stratégie Nationale des Énergies Renouvelables. It is implemented by the Centre national de l’énergie solaire et des énergies renouvelables (CNESOLER) under the supervision of the Direction Nationale de l’Énergie of the ministère de l’Énergie, des Mines, et de l’Eau.

> 9 The National energy policy aims to increase local production of energy by developing biofuels to satisfy the socioeconomic needs of the country at a lower cost.

> 10 These figures were estimated by the Global Exchange for Social Investment (GEXSI) sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to carry out a global market study on jatropha. The goal was to present the situation of jatropha cultivation in 2008 and to foresee the development of projects from now to 2015 for Latin America, Africa and Asia. - (Cf. http://www.jatropha <u>platform.org/index.htm).</u>

> 11 The plant has historically been planted as linear edges to protect crop and therefore plantation figures are often presented in kilometer of edges.

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