Assessing Biomass Feedstock Potential across Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Enugu and Niger States

Agricultural production creates both economic value and substantial quantities of residues. Understanding how those residues can contribute to cleaner energy systems requires reliable information about their availability and distribution.

ResearchForge undertook a biomass feedstock assessment across Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Enugu, and Niger States, focusing on rice husk, sawdust, and palm-kernel dust.

The research sought to understand the relationship between agricultural and processing activities and the availability of residues that could potentially support biomass energy applications. This type of assessment is particularly relevant to decentralised energy planning, where the proximity, consistency, and accessibility of feedstock can strongly influence the practicality of an energy project.

The work demonstrates the importance of connecting agricultural intelligence with energy planning. Production and residue estimates become significantly more useful when they can help answer practical questions: Where are resources concentrated? What quantities may be available? How accessible are they? What competing uses exist? And what energy applications could potentially be matched with them?

At ResearchForge, we view this connection as an important part of productive-use-of-energy intelligence.

The objective is not simply to catalogue agricultural residues, but to understand how resources within local economies may potentially support productive energy systems. Such intelligence can contribute to subsequent feasibility studies, technology selection, project design, and investment assessment.

The assessment across these five states demonstrates how field research can help reveal opportunities at the intersection of agriculture, energy, and resource efficiency—while recognising that further technical and economic assessment is essential before any specific opportunity can be considered viable.