Untapped Riches

Ever since Daimler and Diesel invented the internal combustion engine, fossil fuels have ruled the world to all intents and purposes. For three quarter’s of a century, the world, ever thirstier, greedily guzzled its way into what some of today’s scientists would describe as irreversible climate change.
It was only a drastic development such as the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo that brought the affluent west to a semblance of its senses. As oil prices quadrupled, alternative energy sources began to undergo intense research. Unfortunately, most work stopped before mass production could commence, due to conflict of interest matters concerning Western oil companies. These would of course, be out of pocket if new technologies made fossil fuels redundant.
Still, the basics of new age alternative fuel technologies were developed in the last quarter century even though their attractiveness waxes and wanes with the prevailing price of oil.
In a remarkable turnaround, alternative energy sources, including renewables, have never been as alluring to nations, investors and to the average consumer as they are currently. Research has been brisk and bio-fuels have emerged as the shining knight of conservationists and new ‘greener’ industrialists.
It is vital to point out that it is not just high oil prices that have spurred global interest in bio-fuels. Fossil fuels are finite and it is reliably estimated that the planet has used up over half of all exploitable deposits with the balance due to trickle out in from 25 to 45 years. This hard fact has forced the hands of economists who predict that by 2025, we could see the carbon economy begin to price itself out of the market system.
Certain countries are naturally better suited to gain enormous benefits from large scale production of grains, cereals, grasses and other plants for bio fuel raw material. Brazil and the U.S.A are already the two largest producers of bio-fuel as they exploit their vast arable land. The United States alone has expanded bio-fuel plantations 200% and processing of bio-fuel by opening as many as 54 extraction plants between 2004 and 2007. In both Brazil and the US, farmers and rural communities in general are benefiting from the bio-fuel windfall, turning fallow land into productive acreage.
In Africa, Ethiopia has the same potential to break into this 21st century market and in the process, kill several birds with one stone.
In this regard, news reports of considerable foreign investor interest of late, in establishing bio-fuel plantations in Ethiopia is highly welcome. This should be encouraged in all respects including deserving the serious attention at the highest levels of government.
Bio-fuel raw material can be sourced from several dozen plants, almost all of which can find conducive climates and soils within Ethiopia. Not only are these plants suited to dry land cultivation, but unlike flowers, require minimal or no artificial fertilizers. In addition to these crucial advantages, cultivation and export of bio-fuel plants, as well as the processing of bio-fuels is assured of a guaranteed market. The benefits obtained from bio-fuel raw material byproducts such as fibers and animal feed is valuable, not to mention the advantage to the nation’s environment by improving the plant cover of our denuded landscape.
Bio-fuel raw material cultivation is a labor intensive and sustainable enterprise that offers secure employment in addition to giving considerable relief to Ethiopia’s lopsided balance of payments deficit. In the concluding Ethiopian year, our country spent nearly 1 bln USD on oil product imports. It is not hard to imagine how much that saving alone would help the economy by freeing up much needed foreign currency.
Our country has over 200,000 sq kms of arable land but with less than 10% under cultivation, there still remains virgin, untapped land that is as large as a sizable European country. In this land resides Ethiopia’s tremendous potential.