With fuel prices through the roof and the knock on effect on food prices clearly evident and, to make matters worse right now, Ramadan just around the corner when, as we all know to our cost, quite literally, profiteering is the prayer of the day and, yes another one, monsoon rains predicted to be at least 20 percent above ‘normal’, this is no time to be pumping up the bio-fuel hype and I, for one, am certainly not!
Sure, the price of getting from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ has increased by leaps and some astronomical bounds in the recent months and sure, we would all like fuel prices to drop back down to what they were some years ago - the recent fuel adjustment did slightly reduce it, but did not reduce the prices of other items such as essential basic food as once transporters increase the price they rarely, if ever, bring it back down which should be a criminal offence - but the price of producing bio-fuel could very well be far more that this beleaguered population can possibly afford.
As some of you may be aware, I am all for viable alternative energy sources on all fronts including that of the all-important electricity front and I am also all-out in support of protecting our fragile environment from the predations of exploiters in all shapes and forms. But when it comes to bio-fuel, I have very serious doubts!
Let’s face the facts, the population of this falling apart at the seams country is now estimated to be over 200 million and soaring rapidly and every single one of these souls, rich or poor or somewhere in-between, has a basic human right to both food and water and we are heading slap bang into serious shortages of both of these essential commodities.
Despite the much touted governmental opinion, the population cannot, even if it was willing and the majority most certainly are not, live on wheat alone and nor are people prepared to exist on rice: people desire and deserve, a basic healthy diet that includes fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy products to provide the balanced nourishment, which helps them keep relatively healthy and away from lacklustre medical facilities, where they exist, which a vast majority of the population simply cannot afford to use anyway.
Agricultural production is, admit it or not, dropping: monsoon flooding over the last two years with, maybe, more in the offing, wrecked havoc on massive areas under agricultural production with some of the same and additional areas also being hit by extreme cold last winter. All of these catastrophes caused surges in food prices right across the board as well as, it goes without saying, rendering people homeless and crippling farmers in affected areas. Water issues, there is an increased tendency to flood or drought conditions and this is liable to become more marked as the extreme weather events associated with climate change gather in largely unpredictable and repetitive force - if not downright fury.
In dire straits such as this, allowing, let alone encouraging land, no matter the size of the area, to be used for the commercial cultivation of specialised bio-fuel crops is a ridiculous, even dangerous under the prevailing circumstances, thing to do and claiming that only ‘marginal’ land will be brought under cultivation for this purpose is nothing more than a fairytale as the so-called ‘marginal’ land needs, on an urgent basis, to be brought under food production too.
The same principles apply to the huge areas of agricultural land in various locations, which have become, or are becoming, saline: saline land can be reclaimed and made good again and some crops, cabbages, cauliflowers and other members of the Brassica family for example, actually enjoy saline conditions as does, so new research has found, that all time favourite Okra and there is another ‘wonder crop’, called Salicornia, which requires saline conditions in order to grow and all of this, along with other edible agricultural produce, must be given priority overspecialised crops solely intended for bio-fuel production.
There are, of course, other, none edible, bio-fuel options which, while they do not require actual cultivation, primarily being the residues of other crops - wheat and rice straw for example, do have food chain uses in that they are used as cattle fodder etc so these should not, out of necessity, be viewed as bio-fuel options either and, if there is an excess of ‘agricultural waste’, it would make far more sense to use it to make biogas, from which the follow on residue is wonderful, organic fertiliser, which is far better than the toxic chemical concoctions currently in widespread use.
There is no doubt about it - fuel prices are high and will get higher still, as will food prices and the population explosion; this must be controlled if the country is to survive in any peaceful form whatsoever, must be brought under some kind of feasible and acceptable control. But taking sustenance out of the mouths of the poor in order to fuel the vehicles of the rich is definitely no way to proceed.

n    The writer is author of The Gun Tree: One Woman’s War (Oxford University Press, 2001) and lives in Bhurban.
    Email: zahrahnasir@hotmail.com