In Africa, sustainable energy development methods aimed at improving the energy content of 'wastes' from agro processing activities in the rural areas can help in reducing the pressure on wood fuel from trees, thereby helping the environment by reducing deforestation and harmful combustion products into the atmosphere. Gasification of agro residues (residues) is an efficient way of improving the value of this wastes in a way that would be useful in the rural areas for heating purposes in processing the harvested crops and at the same time there exist a possibility of also using the product gas directly for electricity generation in areas where the national grid does not extend to.