The fact that there is a food crisis confronting the world is no more a projection, but a stark reality that many nations, particularly the poor are grappling with.

World food prices have gone up more than half and are still rising. In Ghana, prices have more than doubled since the crisis.

The World Bank says the price of staple crops such as wheat, rice and corn have all risen, leading to an increase in overall food prices of 83% in the last three years.

In some countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Egypt and Togo, Haiti and the Philipines, there have been food prices related riots. And the World Bank again has estimated that 33 countries face potential social unrest because of rising food and energy prices.

High oil prices, which have resulted in increasing transportation cost, the continuous fall in the value of the US dollar, changes in the global consumption pattern, as well as biofuels have been cited as some of the factors leading to the crisis.

But the biofuels dimension seems to be creating a hotter debate. The use of productive agriculture land for the production of non-food crops for the production of biofuels has become too obvious to overlook by some leaders.

On the forefront of the debate against and for the part biofuels are playing in the crisis are three Latin American leaders, they are the presidents of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil.

Evo Morales of Bolivia said at the UN in New York that the development of biofuels is harming the world’s most impoverished people.

And Alan Garcia of Peru who was more forthright in his position, said using land for biofuels was putting food out of the reach of the poor.

But last week, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, rejected allegations that biofuels were responsible for the rise in world food prices, and instead blamed rising oil prices for the current global food crisis, saying biofuels are not the problem.

He said rising oil prices are pushing up freight costs which, in turn, affect world food prices.

Speaking in Accra, Ghana, President da Silva said,“Ethanol production has not contributed in any way to the food price crises.”

Brazil is encouraging its farmers to grow biofuels including sugarcane, castor beans and corn, instead of traditional food crops.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has criticized the Brazilian position saying, the shift is a factor in the reduction of food production.

But Mr da Silva has countered the criticism and said there is enough land for production of both food and biofuels, especially in Africa. And he is calling on rich countries to remove their subsidies on agricultural production and give financial help to poor countries.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK is hosting a meeting to discuss European policy that would encourage biofuels in Europe.

And Mr Brown is reported to have said that the UK should be "more selective in our support" for biofuels, which convert cereals into fuel.

The US is also investing heavily into the production of biofuels.

These developments in the production of biofuels are believed to pose a danger to the world because it could worsen the food crisis. It is feared that food prices would climb worldwide, because the development of biofuels has the tendency to reduce the production of badly-needed basic foodstuffs.

For instance, ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US maize crop by 2010, dramatically curtailing the amount of land available for food crops.

Only this week, the Brazilian government has signed an agreement with Ghana to grow sugarcane for bio-ethanol in the country.

According to President da Silva, "in Ghana we are developing a project that will result in growing 27,000 hectares (of sugarcane) for the production of 150 million litres of ethanol per year that are destined for the Swedish market."

The situation is becoming complex, because the need to develop alternative energy sources for fossil fuels is crucial to dealing with global warming, however, it appears a complicated balancing act is needed so that the development does not exacerbate the food crisis.

And in the meantime, as the debate for biofuels get hotter, the crucial need for food for the world’s 100 million people in poor countries who could possibly be pushed deeper into poverty by spiralling prices is also waiting to be addressed immediately.

Hopefully, interventions by the World Bank, World Food Programme and the US government would offer some respite.

But Ghana should be proactive and think comprehensively about how to handle the situation. As we accept the Brazilian proposal, hopefully, we had taken the necessary steps required to fully benefit from it, without the extreme negative side of the impact of such a project that has the likelihood to upset our already neglected and fragile agriculture industry.

Ghana’s Agriculture Minister has assured the country that there is enough food to handle the crisis for now. He has even said, the country is almost at the point of passing a law to make the use of cassava flour in composite flour for the baking of bread possible.

Bread is a large part of Ghanaian meals, but it is produced from imported wheat, which price has gone up.

This is also the time to take the agriculture sector much more serious than we have always done, and appropriately invest in it.

It is hoped that the Government is on top of the issues, because, this is a real crisis the country cannot afford to underestimate.

If we do, we will be signing the death warrant of our rural poor, upon whom the rest of us depend, ironically for our food supply.


Authored by Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

Email: edogbevi@hotmail.com