Energy-South-Africa: Fuel in the Car at the Expense of Food on the Table?

…Sugrue fears that producing biofuel from maize could affect food security. Maize is the staple food of South Africa, consumed by 80 percent of the population. “One of the biggest criticisms of the biofuels sector is that it could contribute to a shortage of food. This could happen if there is competition for the crops themselves,” she told IPS.

Such competition could pose problems at regional, as well as national level, Sugrue wrote in a paper titled ‘Towards A Southern African NGO Position On Biofuels’: “In Southern Africa maize could be a major feedstock for biofuels, yet it is the staple diet of more than 80 percent of the population and all of the poorest citizens.”

“A conversion of these farms to the production of energy crops would be devastating to the food economy and security. Other countries like South Africa and Namibia have limited arable land and in the former case have achieved reasonably good local food production that should be maintained.” She also points out that maize can prove difficult to cultivate, being vulnerable to drought, and vacillating between surpluses and deficits from one year to the next.

“It might be better to look at the sugar industry which has consistent and permanent surpluses that are used for export that could be diverted towards the biofuels industry,” noted Sugrue, who says environmentalists are committed to having 10 percent of electricity in South Africa generated by renewable energy sources by 2012 — and 20 percent by 2020.

Africa News