The Hindu Business Line : Biofuels

This is in response to letters reacting to the article “Biofuelling India’s hunger” (Business Line, January 4). While the arguments are interesting, I strongly feel that before India jumps on to the bio-fuel bandwagon, the planners need to do their homework well. Bio-fuels are no more efficient than fossil fuels in controlling greenhouse gases (GHGs). If one counts only the immediate carbon costs of planting and processing bio-fuels, they appear to reduce GHGs.

But when one looks at the total impact, one realises that bio-fuels cause more warming than petroleum. Ethanol from maize causes between 0.9 and 1.5 times more warming than petrol does, while rapeseed oil, widely used in Europe and the source of more than 80 per cent of bio-diesel, generates 1-1.7 times the impact of ordinary diesel. No conclusive studies have yet been carried out on Jatropha.

The central question is not finding any alternative fuel, but whether the alternative source will reduce the impact on global warming. And, second, what is the consequence of taking recourse to such an action. The prices of corn and soybean (widely used for green fuel manufacture) are galloping in the US.

More land, even more than is under wheat, is being released for cultivation of such fuel crops. This means more money to the farmer and the lure is irresistible, but what about the grains needed for human consumption? When grain prices go through the roof in the US, as has been recently reported by the Chicago Board of Trade, this will adversely impact grain prices all over the world.

At a time when India is suffering the impact of the Malthusian phenomenon — population growth at an annual rate of 1.9 per cent outstripping food production at an annual rate of 1.6 per cent — every effort should be made to use even the so-called ‘wastelands’ for food production.

K. P. Prabhakaran Nair e-mail

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