According to Dr Niphon Poapongsakorn, dean of Economics at Thammasat University in Thailand, cassava-based ethanol is competitive when oil is above $40 per barrel. Thailand is the world's largest producer and exporter of cassava for industrial use.
Japan launches 'Green Cool Asia' plan: boosting food security through biofuels
In a very interesting development, the Japanese government has decided to launch a plan to assist Southeast Asian countries with measures to increase the output of agricultural products that can be used to make biofuels. The 'Green Cool Asia' plan aims to encourage highly developed Asian countries to buy biofuels from poor countries in order to alleviate poverty and boost the food security of small farmers across the region.
Improving food security through biofuels
The plan is named 'Green Cool Asia', and the logic behind is similar to that of a 'biopact': it aims to prevent the shortage of food supplies in developing countries by prompting industrialized countries to procure more biofuel materials from those countries. In short, the plan reiterates the counter-intuitive idea that biofuel production can boost food security.
Food and agriculture analysts have repeatedly said that food insecurity is not the result of a physical shortage of food, but of a lack of income to buy food. By looking at farmers as biofuel producers, the creation of a global biofuels market could boost their incomes. The WorldWatch institute, the FAO and other organisations, have therefor said that the biofuels market can help bring about a rural renaissance, fight poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity. The vast bulk of the world's 800 million food insecure people are small farmers. They stand to benefit from the biofuel revolution (earlier post and here).
The Japanese government will make a report about this plan at the summit meeting of the Group of Eight major nations to be held at the Lake Toya resort in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, next July.
Tech and knowledge transfers
According to the plan, experts from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will advise local people on ways to enhance the cultivation of agricultural products used to make bioethanol for gasoline-fueled cars and biodiesel for diesel cars. The government will provide these countries with plant strains developed in Japan to improve harvests and measures to enhance irrigation systems.
Japan also will give those countries technical and financial assistance to build facilities to produce biofuels and ask for cooperation from Japanese manufacturers with biofuel production technology and major trading companies whose distribution networks include Southeast Asian countries:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: rural development :: poverty alleviation :: technology transfer :: South East Asia ::
The government intends to send a research team consisting of officials from the public and private sectors to Southeast Asia sometime in October to select appropriate countries. Candidates include Vietnam, which harvests rice three times a year; Thailand, which cultivates sugar cane, rice and cassava; and Malaysia and Indonesia, which plant palms.
Governmental organizations and companies in Europe have started arrangements to procure biofuel materials from Asian and African countries with cheap costs including cheap labor.
An official at the ministry is concerned that local people might put priority on agricultural products used for biofuels and then suffer from food shortages. To counter this trend, an expansion of agricultural production is indispensable in those developing countries, the official said.
References:
Daily Yomiuri: Govt aims to boost output of biofuel in S.E. Asia - September 12, 2007.
Biopact: Worldwatch Institute chief: biofuels could end global malnourishment -
August 23, 2007
Biopact: FAO chief calls for a 'Biopact' between the North and the South - August 15, 2007
Cassava farmers in Thailand. Biofuel production and markets offer unique opportunities to fight rural poverty and to boost the food security of the world's small farmers
Rice, palms, sorghum, sugar cane, cassava and other crops commonly grown in Southeast Asian countries can be used to make efficient and sustainable biofuels that can help prevent global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.Improving food security through biofuels
The plan is named 'Green Cool Asia', and the logic behind is similar to that of a 'biopact': it aims to prevent the shortage of food supplies in developing countries by prompting industrialized countries to procure more biofuel materials from those countries. In short, the plan reiterates the counter-intuitive idea that biofuel production can boost food security.
Food and agriculture analysts have repeatedly said that food insecurity is not the result of a physical shortage of food, but of a lack of income to buy food. By looking at farmers as biofuel producers, the creation of a global biofuels market could boost their incomes. The WorldWatch institute, the FAO and other organisations, have therefor said that the biofuels market can help bring about a rural renaissance, fight poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity. The vast bulk of the world's 800 million food insecure people are small farmers. They stand to benefit from the biofuel revolution (earlier post and here).
The Japanese government will make a report about this plan at the summit meeting of the Group of Eight major nations to be held at the Lake Toya resort in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, next July.
Tech and knowledge transfers
According to the plan, experts from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry will advise local people on ways to enhance the cultivation of agricultural products used to make bioethanol for gasoline-fueled cars and biodiesel for diesel cars. The government will provide these countries with plant strains developed in Japan to improve harvests and measures to enhance irrigation systems.
Japan also will give those countries technical and financial assistance to build facilities to produce biofuels and ask for cooperation from Japanese manufacturers with biofuel production technology and major trading companies whose distribution networks include Southeast Asian countries:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: rural development :: poverty alleviation :: technology transfer :: South East Asia :: The government intends to send a research team consisting of officials from the public and private sectors to Southeast Asia sometime in October to select appropriate countries. Candidates include Vietnam, which harvests rice three times a year; Thailand, which cultivates sugar cane, rice and cassava; and Malaysia and Indonesia, which plant palms.
Governmental organizations and companies in Europe have started arrangements to procure biofuel materials from Asian and African countries with cheap costs including cheap labor.
An official at the ministry is concerned that local people might put priority on agricultural products used for biofuels and then suffer from food shortages. To counter this trend, an expansion of agricultural production is indispensable in those developing countries, the official said.
References:
Daily Yomiuri: Govt aims to boost output of biofuel in S.E. Asia - September 12, 2007.
Biopact: Worldwatch Institute chief: biofuels could end global malnourishment -
August 23, 2007
Biopact: FAO chief calls for a 'Biopact' between the North and the South - August 15, 2007
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