Book Review: Biofuels, Food Security and Developing Economies

(merinews) ... Giving the intensity of debate of food versus fuel debate, Naziz (Mintz-Habib)'s fascinating study explores how and in what circumstances Biofuel crops contribute to either perpetuating or alleviating poverty and food in security by considering the complex interactions among agricultural commodity and energy markets, climate change mitigating finance and farming communities.

Nazia Mintz-Habib, who is lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, UK in her study focus on the non-edible feedstock crop - Jatropha curcas. She analyses the extent to which biofuels feed stocks fit within the national food security strategy, agro-export orientation, and rural development plans and policies of developing economies. Two case studies, from Tanzania in East Africa and Borneo in Malaysia, are considered in detail, using the non-edible crop of Jatropha as an example of how compromises can be reached to balance food and energy goals as well as export markets. The author develops a novel integrated approach, the Institutional Feasibility Study, as the basis of her analysis.

She addresses key issues such as: how do global initiatives for green growth, energy security and sustainable development incorporate biofuels industry development? Does global biofuels trade present meaningful foreign and local investment opportunities for developing countries? To what extent does biofuels feedstock production help with poverty reduction and agricultural sector modernization? What role do the EU and the US commitments to biofuels blending targets play in the rapid industry development in developing countries? How does the biofuels industry fit within existing formal and informal institutional frameworks? Who are the winners and losers in the biofuels global value chain?