Biofuels so far competed little with food production

Farmers increase food crop production, compensate for biofuel crops
 
July 18, 2013 - PRLog -- WAGENINGEN, The Netherlands – A week after the environmental committee of the European Parliament (EP) capped biofuel production from food crops to a maximum of 5.5% because of its effect on food security, a new study reveals food production has not been suffering much from the use of corn, wheat or palm oil in biofuel production.

Calculating land use changes in Brazil, the USA, the EU, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Mozambique, a team headed by Dutch researcher Hans Langeveld demonstrated that, so far, biofuels did not compete much with food production.

Farmers increased multiple cropping, a practice that allows more than one harvest from a field in a given year. By doing so, they generated new biofuel feedstock while increasing food production. Biofuel production therefore is not a likely cause to major deforestation, usually indicated as indirectlandusechange (ILUC).

According to the study, between 2000 and 2010, urbanisation claimed twice the amount of land used for biofuel expansion.

It contains other revealing data. "Increases in crop harvested area have compensated biofuel expansion", says Langeveld. "It even made up for loss of agricultural land due to urbanisation".

Farmers responded to increased demand for crops. "Not so much by opening new land", he adds, "but by using it more effectively". Farmers managed to harvest more crops – from less land.

This came as a surprise, as the authors expected biofuel expansion to have happened at least partly at the expense of food production.

"We knew farmers are keen to cover the increased demand for crops, and we expected them to reduce the amount of fallow land", according to Langeveld, who headed a team consisting of researchers from Australia and the Netherlands.

"We did not expect farmers to increase multiple cropping. But they did. It allowed them to compensate land losses caused by urbanisation."

Langeveld, who is running a consulting company on sustainable bioenergy, stresses that the authors used a new approach. "This study is the first of its kind. We collected land use and crop data from sources like the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)."

So far, biofuel watchers had to rely on model projections which have been heavily criticised. "Our approach revealed a major change in multiple cropping. ILUC models seem to have overlooked this."

"This does not mean that biofuel production never affects food production", he adds. "Competition for land does occur. Locally, biofuel producers may use land that was used for other crops."

The researcher emphasises that this practice should be discouraged. "Existing land rights should be respected at all times".

But there is reason for optimism, according to the researcher.

"Farmers provided sufficient crops to compensate for biofuel expansion, serving both food and fuel markets". He stresses that this does not mean that hunger has been solved. Also, biofuels could compete with food in the future. "We studied only the period between 2000 and 2010."

The report arrives in a time where biofuel policies are highly criticised. It is expected to play a role in further discussions on the ILUC debate. Last week, a new ILUC study by the American researcher Timothy Searchinger was attacked for being based on weak evidence.

The study ´Analysing the effect of biofuel expansion on land use change in major producing countries: evidence of increased multiple cropping´ was published by Biomass Research, a consulting company based in the Netherlands (www.biomassresearch.eu). The authors are Hans Langeveld, John Dixon, Herman van Keulen and Foluke Quist-Wessel.

Hans Langeveld is director of Biomass Research. Previously, he worked at the Centre for World Food Studies (SOW-VU) and Wageningen University and Research Centre. John Dixon is Principal Regional Coordinator, Asia and Africa at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. Herman van Keulen is a retired professor of Wageningen University and Research Centre. Foluke Quist-Wessel is Director of Agri-Quest and senior researcher at Biomass Research.
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Page Updated Last on: Jul 18, 2013



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