Nigeria Content Online

Biofuel demand is
driving a new “land grab” in Africa, with at least 5 million hectares
(19,300 sq miles) acquired by foreign firms to grow crops in 11
countries, a study by an environmental group said on Monday.

The contracts by
European and Asian companies for land to grow sugar cane, jatropha and
palm oil to be turned into fuel will involve clearing forests and
vegetation, taking land that could be used for food and creating
conflicts with local communities, Friends of the Earth said in the
study.

Proponents of
biofuels argue they are renewable and can help fight climate change
because the growing plants ingest as much carbon dioxide from the air
as the fuels made from them emit when burned.

Critics say there
is a risk of the crops infringing on land that could be used for
growing food and that destruction of rainforests to make way for palm
oil and sugar outweighs any carbon benefits gained from the use of such
fuels.

Creating conflicts

“The expansion of
biofuels … is transforming forests and natural vegetation into fuel
crops, taking away food-growing farmland from communities, and creating
conflicts with local people over land ownership,” Mariann Bassey, a
Friends of the Earth Nigeria activist, said in a statement.

The report said
Kenya and Angola each had received proposals for the use of 500,000
hectares for biofuels and there was a similar plan to use 400,000
hectares in Benin for palm oil.

Rice farmers had been forced off their land for a sugar cane project in Tanzania, it added.

“The competition
for land and the competition for staple food crops such as cassava and
sweet sorghum for agrofuels is likely to push up food and land prices,”
the study said.

Other studies have suggested biofuel expansion would not be harmful and could even be beneficial for African agriculture.

Last month,
researchers from Britain’s Imperial College, carbon trader CAMCO, and
the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) said biofuels
would boost investment in land and infrastructure.

They said this could have a positive effect on food production, and
if properly managed would not mean destroying natural forests.