[Stoves] Charcoal in Gambia

[rongretlarson at comcast.net]

Crispin etal 

I can't let you off the hook so easily. My main points in my last message on charcoaling in Gambia were two fold - and you missed commenting on either one. If charcoal making is so great for the economy - why is production illegal? Second the cost we should be talking about should involve externalities - not just its availability because people have no other employment. This is to request your thoughts on these several rejoinders. 

I asked Does anyone know of any African country where char production is considered a plus for the economy? 




and you replied: " All over the place. Given the destruction of the domestic food industry by Western countries dumping food below cost, it is one of the only things you can do in a rural are that earns enough money to buy matches, school books, candles and tea. 
I still maintain that Gambia is probably being ruined from people breaking the law. And Biochar production in pyrolysis stoves by these same unemployed folk can be accomplished by people like me paying for taking atmospheric carbon out of their (and my atmosphere. Partly this can be done locally, but also these same unemployed can plant and manage trees. They can also prepare wood of the proper type for shipment to cities for use in pyrokyzing stoves (and thosecity people save in the process). The same tree used as wood can probably cook for 4 to 5 times as many people (I have seen the number 7). And the properly managed tree (and its roots) will not be savaged - but rather coppiced. 

There is a good reason for most laws and I hate to see the subject of illegal charcoal making going undiscussed. 

Thanks for the report below that Bakari has used the phrase "very big improvement" from Biochar I hope he can give us more detail. I don't know whether that is 20% (very big in this country) or 200%.(which I am hearing a lot in Africa). The difference can start with the rural stove. 

R on 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Crispin Pemberton-Pigott" <crispinpigott at gmail.com> 
To: rongretlarson at comcast.net, "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Cc: "Paul Olivier" <paul.olivier at esrla.com>, "Danny Growald" <dgrowald at gmail.com>, "biochar-policy" <biochar-policy at yahoogroups.com> 
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 12:27:23 AM 
Subject: RE: [Stoves] Charcoal in Gambia 




Dear All 
> Can you ask Cecil to get a few more price numbers 

He left today. He has numbers from a variety of things but concentrating on domestic stoves and fuels. 

> The Gambian prices of about 15 to 20 c/kg ($150-$200/ tonne) are certainly pretty low. 

Yes, indicating that it is not in that short a supply. 

> Does anyone know of any African country where char production is considered a plus for the economy? 

All over the place. Given the destruction of the domestic food industry by Western countries dumping food below cost, it is one of the only things you can do in a rural are that earns enough money to buy matches, school books, candles and tea. That sort of basic necessity. In Mozambique there used to be a huge ($188m/yr) cashew nut trading system in place. Mostly gone now but partly restored. Income is difficult to generate when the main thing available is land for food production. 

> If the peanut log is 6 Dalasi, your comment below doesn't make sense to me in terms of balancing from the perspective of the user. 

That is the current commercial price were to sell it. I don’t think anyone will take the product at that price. It is a new business. Too much overhead in equipment if you ask me. 

> I'll bet the user of a charcoal-making stove can get the cost of cooking a meal down to zero by selling the produced char (of course for putting in the ground) 

‘Bakari’ (who is German) reads the stoves list. He says he has very big improvements using biochar in sandy soils in Gambia. Cecil interviewed him in his garden. 

Regards 

Crispin 

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