Conference article

This work reviews current bio-ethanol developments in Nigeria and offers recommendations to help sustains this trend of development. The use of staple crops; such as cassava for bio ethanol production is generating mixed reactions among the populace who depend largely on these crops for food due to poor living conditions in the country. This paper reports that while there is a target of 1.27 billion litres of ethanol per year to be blended with petroleum; the government is doing little to increase cassava production and cassava extraction efficiency. The current average yield of Nigeria’s cassava stands at 15 tonnes per hectare compared to countries like Brazil with an average of 35 tonnes per hectare. Furthermore agricultural research and development in the country is underfunded; a situation which hampers innovation and growth in the agricultural sector. The need to concentrate efforts on increasing the average yield of cassava is emphasised in this work. This study could not explore the technical aspect of the cellulosic feedstock for bio-ethanol due to the non-standardization of the techniques coupled with the fact that the bio-ethanol industry in Nigeria is still at its infancy. It is obvious that the government lacks comprehensive policies to tackle the challenges that ethanol development will pose to the citizenry. Therefore this paper provides recommendations for policy makers to aid in formulating a sustainable bio-ethanol policy for Nigeria.

Ethanol; Biofuel; Energy crops; Food crise;Cassava