A number of private companies have established a partnership with local authorities in Mozambique aiming to make a new integrated food- energy business that will replace thousands of charcoal-burning cookstoves with cleaner ethanol stoves.

The business model is intended to increase farmers’ incomes manyfold, save some 9,000 acres of indigenous forest every year and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It aims to supply 20 per cent of local households in the capital, Maputo, with a clean and competitive alternative to charcoal that helps safeguard lives from dangerous charcoal smoke.

Farmers will have the opportunity to transition from slash-and-burn agriculture and charcoal production to cultivating a diverse range of crops and trees. Changing to the production of a more diverse range of food products as well as an ethanol-based cooking fuel made from cassava to be sold in urban markets is projected to significantly improve income and nutrition levels, while also rehabilitating degraded soils and enhancing biodiversity.

Thousands of smallholder farmers will be engaged to create a food and ethanol cooking fuel production facility, implement sustainable farming practices and lay the groundwork for economically and ecologically sustainable communities.

Source: www.cleanstarmozambique.com.