Biofuels, Bioenergy and Food Security

In recent years, energy security concerns and growing commitment to address climate change has sparked off significant interest and debate on biomass for energy, particularly liquid biofuels. The debate on biofuels has been particularly controversial because it has largely been driven by politics, ethical/moral considerations, and vested interests rather than by science. This book presents state of the art information on the complexities in assessing sustainability as related to energy and food security interactions among food security, biofuels, and resource management. In first chapter, we draw the key linkages between future biofuels growth on agricultural commodity prices, and highlight some of the key uncertainties over OECD fuel and energy policies, and their implications for global agricultural markets and the world food situation. The chapter shows some of the implications that biofuels expansion has on crop area expansion in regions where environmental concerns exist over land use change and the possible impacts on the environment. A key objective of second chapter is to provide an assessment of previous work on "food versus fuel," a candent topic, which is shaping the future of biomass for energy, to provide an analysis of the current and future situation, and to contribute to possible alternatives to minimize or avoid future conflict. This chapter focuses on food prices, land competition, GHG, energy balance, and energy subsidies and concerns with the rapid expansion of bioenergy for electricity and heat, climatic changes, the role of agriculture as a key factor.Among the world's continents, Africa has the highest incidence of food insecurity and poverty and the highest rates of population growth. Yet Africa also has the most arable land, the lowest crop yields, and by far the most plentiful land resources relative to energy demand. It is thus of interest to examine the potential of expanded modern bioenergy production in Africa. In last chapter of this monograph, we consider bioenergy as an enabler for development, and provide an overview of modern bioenergy technologies with a comment on application in African context.