Zimbabwe: Tread on Biofuels Cautiously

The Herald (Harare)
Published by the government of Zimbabwe


The Herald (Harare)

OPINION
4 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008

Sifelani Tsiko
Harare

WHILE there is a drive by Zimbabwe and most other African countries to
develop biofuels as a response to both climate change and the rising
petroleum fuel import bill, agronomists and environmentalists say this
must be done cautiously so as not to threaten food security and
sovereignty.

Development experts who met recently at a one-day seminar in Harare to
discuss food aid and food security called on Zimbabwe and other
African countries to grow more crops for food than for biofuels, given
the growing threat of food riots worldwide as the poor protests
against rising food prices.

"Structural adjustment policies imposed by Bretton Woods institutions
removed governments from food production and this is a major cause of
loss of food sovereignty," said Professor Carol Thompson, a visiting
political economist from the Northern Arizona University in the United
States.

"Market policies have failed the poor. Food prices are rising, they
are more hungry people. The Doha Round failed recently over
contentious agricultural issues because the US and the European Union
failed to remove subsidies for their own farmers."

She said Zimbabwe and most other African countries were enthusiastic
about biofuels programmes but warned that this flurry of initiatives
would lead to food shortages and more food riots as large
foreign-dominated multinationals focus more on agro-fuels production
at the expense of food for the poor.

"People are beginning to compete with cars. There is a rapid rise in
crop production for fuel. Large conglomerates are integrating
vertically from the fields to the fuel tanks and not much to the
dinner plate," she said.

"In the US, only four corporates decide what you will eat and not the
US government anymore. There is a big danger that Zimbabwe and Africa
might lose food sovereignty if multinationals are allowed to come in
and exploit food crops for biofuels.

"Maize is a staple for people here and once it's commodified for
agro-fuels production, the community identity and sustenance will be
lost."

According to a 2008 World Food Programme report, there were food riots
in 70 countries worldwide while 100 million more people were hungry.

The United Nations estimates that one billion people suffer from
hunger and poverty, about 12 percent of all humanity.

GRAIN, a non-profit organisation which promotes the sustainable
management and use of agricultural bio-diversity, reports that 70
percent of developing countries are net food importers as of today.

There is a large-scale planting of agro-fuel crops, particularly
jatropha, in most countries in Southern Africa as governments join in
the growing movement towards alternative fuels.

Large multinationals are moving in, taking over resources used by
rural communities for their own survival.

Agronomists and environmentalists who met at the seminar, organised by
the Community Technology Development Trust, said local people in most
parts of Southern Africa would find it harder to satisfy their food
and fuel needs.

"It is the rural poor who will bear the cost of the agro-fuel boom
while reaping few of the benefits," said Mr Andrew Mushita, an
agronomist and director of CTDT.

"The shortage of fuel has also been a challenge within the region and
this has led to Sadc countries putting large areas of land under
plants which will be processed to produce fuel.

"This has greatly affected agriculture and also food security of the
region."

In the region, the Democratic Republic of Congo committed 3 million
hectares of land for agro-fuels production, Mozambique 3,5 million
hectares, South Africa 700 000 hectares, Tanzania 400 000 hectares and
Zambia 500 000 hectares, according to media reports.

Agronomists and environmentalists expressed concern that these huge
tracts of land were being mostly used to produce agro-fuels by
multinationals for foreign consumption by rich countries in the North.

"These industrial conglomerates see Africa as a 'Green Opec' for the
world. The amount of grain required to fill the 90-litre tank of a 4X4
once with ethanol will feed one person for a year," Prof Thompson said.

"Jatropha will take good soils from food crops. Is it right to make
land available for agro-fuels production in a food deficit region?
There is need to tackle agro-fuels in the context of our land policies."

She said Africa should be concerned that Nigeria, Africa's third
largest oil producer (and the world's 10th largest) imports 70 percent
of oil for domestic consumption.

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