Novel Bioenergy Crop Potential in the ECOWAS region

The project “Regional potential assessment of novel bio energy crops in fifteen ECOWAS countries” was started
by the different project partners based on the need to make an overall assessment of a series of novel potential
bio energy crops which can or could be grown and processed in the future in the 15 ECOWAS countries. This
project fits in a broader strategic analysis of alternative energy needs and production, the key mandate of the mainfunding partner in the project, ECREEE. The project partners deliberately excluded conventional “bio energy”
crops like sugarcane, oil palm, maize or sunflower as target crops, since they believed a sufficient knowledge
base on the growing and processing crops was available globally and in the region. The novel bio energy crops
chosen as targets for the study are a selection of crops for which either the agricultural knowledge is still limited
and/or the use of the crop as an energy source is relatively new. The project team realizes that the list of selected crops is not an exhaustive list of potential bio energy crops and other novel crops may have a potential in the region. The project will develop a methodology that can be followed in the future for analyzing the potential of other crops and does not want to exclude this analysis in the future.
The crops that have been selected for analysis in this project are: False Flax (Camelina sativa), Crambe (Crambe
abyssinica), Cassava (Manihot esculenta), Castor bean (Ricinus communis), Cashew (Anacardium occidentale),
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), Jatropha curcas and sweet sorghum (sweet version of Sorghum bicolor).