New study: biofuels will have “modest impact on global water and food supply”; warns on India, China

A study by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Sri Lanka warned that biofuel production in India and China would severely impact the two countries’ water supplies. Charlotte de Fraiture, an IWMI scientist and lead author of the biofuels study said that India and China “account for almost 70 percent of projected worldwide growth in oil demand between now and 2030.

Yet, the two countries are already struggling to find enough water to grow the food they need.” According to farmonoline, the survey concluded that biofuel production will only have a modest impact on global water and food supply.

Last month, researchers indicated that it will require 26% of India’s water supply to produce enough ethanol to meet a 10 percent mandate. This year in China, drought conditions have hit 27 million acres of crop-producing land; this, combined with other natural disasters, forced Chinese officials to suspend ethanol expansion as the country faces the prospect of importing food to meet rising demand.

India and China have, to date, relied heavily on water-intensive maize and sugarcane in their biofuels development planning. “In our opinion,” said Marc de Boer of BFP International, “research should be done to select alternative crops that can be cultivated on marginal grounds and are more drought resistant requiring less water, whilst still providing good yields. Alternative specific energy crops could be camelina or jerusalem artichoke.”

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