First ISCC EU low ILUC awarded to Eni’s Kenyan castor oil supplier

In Kenya, the first ISCC EU low ILUC (indirect land-use change) certificate was awarded to Janari Farms, serving as the farmers’ aggregator for Italy’s energy company Eni SpA in Kenya, for the production of castor beans to be used as agri-feedstock in the production of biofuels. At Janari Farms, farmers have cultivated castor on severely degraded land without risk of direct and indirect displacement of food and feed crops.

The low ILUC risk certification documents that the increasing demand for biofuel feedstock can be satisfied in two main ways: by improving agricultural yields through practices such as sequential cropping, better soil management, crop protection, or modernised machinery, or by cultivating crops on previously unused, abandoned, or severely degraded land. Therefore, low ILUC risk feedstock production avoids displacing natural, unmanaged ecosystems, like forests, wetlands, or grasslands, to produce biomass for food, feed, or biofuels.