Policy Brief

Bio-energy/bio-fuel is renewable source of energy produced from agricultural and forest products or the biodegradable portion of industrial or municipal waste. It is not new source of energy, even though its production has been limited to domestic us. Only recently it has succeeded in sowing hope for a large-scale development particularly to help reduce dependence on fossil fuels which is under threat of exhaustion, increase access to energy for the poor and improved incomes in local communities.

Nigeria has good environment for bio-energy production especially in the areas of vast arable land space (estimated at over 30 million hectares (World Fact Book); favorable climate; and cheap labour. Nigeria has a huge potential to embark on large scale bio-energy production with an estimated 2 million hectares found suitable for bio-energy development. The land is ideally suited for sugar cane, cassava, sweet sorghum, oil palm, Jatropha and other energy crops production.

However, there are several concerns of bio-energy development in Nigeria: it can lead to both positive and negative environmental and socio-economic impacts and these impacts can affect the four dimensions of food security-availability, access, utilization and stability. There is a need for more enlightenment and possible solutions that the dynamics around bio-energy development should aim at maintaining a balance between food and energy security, as well as ecosystem conservation.