Nigeria: Jigawa’s Ethanol Project – Alternative to Oil?

From the wetland of Ringim in Jigawa State, to the highly fertile but inaccessible area of Baturiya at Yobe State boarder, something great is happening.

The land, cutting across over 10 local government areas is marked for the first phase of Jigawa State sugar cane/ethanol project. It is an ambitious agricultural cum industrialisation project that is expected to provide at least one million jobs. Already, graders, tractors and other related equipment have been mobilised to the site. Water is running through newly built channels. And farmers are doing what they know best: planting sugar cane, which would be instantly purchased from them immediately after harvesting. The choice of sugar cane for the area, which is also suitable for rice production, was as a result of large population of birds that can be destructive to grain production like rice.

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