The official from the ministry’s biosafety administration office also denied recent media reports that China had already approved imported GMO grain seeds for widespread planting. His remarks were published by state media Mar. 3.

“The Ministry of Agriculture has never approved any genetically modified grain seeds for planting in the country, and there are no GMO grain crops being planted within the country,” said the unnamed official.

The GMO cotton, soy, maize and rapeseed approved for import into China were “restricted to use as raw materials for processing,” but not for planting, said the official.

But the official also described hopes that China will be a leading player in international competition to create and grow its own GMO crops that are resistant to pests and diseases.

“Accelerating technical research on GMO crops and their application and healthy development will provide a vigorous scientific support for the sustainable development of China’s agriculture,” said the official, in the interview that also appeared on the ministry’s website.

Developing GMO strains was important for both international competitiveness and ensuring China’s food security, said the official.

China approved the safety of the insect-resistant Bt strain of rice and phytase corn last November, opening the door to widespread planting of the GMO grain crops, within about three years

South Africa Maize Farmers Urge U-Turn On Biofuels

South African farmers want the government to allow the use of maize in biofuels production in order to ease energy costs and help make cultivation profitable, an industry official said Feb. 26.

The government unveiled blending ratios for biofuels three years ago but said maize, South Africa’s staple food, could not be used in the production of biofuels in order to ensure food security and keep a lid on high prices.

It urged farmers to boost output to considerably more than South Africa’s food needs if they wanted maize in the biofuels plan.

“If you look at our production levels now over the past few years I think there’s room for us to use maize for biofuels,” Neels Ferreira, chairman of grain farmers’ grouping Grain SA told Reuters on the sidelines of an agriculture conference.

South Africa has managed surplus maize output for the past two seasons, in which local producers have harvested over 12 million tonnes of the grain.

The Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said last week it expects this season’s output to reach about 12.88 million tonnes, which would be the country’s biggest harvest in about 29 years.

South Africans consume between eight million to nine million tonnes of the staple each year.

“Our position is that apart from helping with the issue of profitability for farmers, using maize in biofuels (production) would also ease the energy costs that we have in the country. It’s definitely something they should reconsider,” Ferreira said.

Brazil Details U. S. Cotton Retaliation

Brazil has detailed its planned retaliation against the United States over U. S. cotton subsidies but said Washington still had a chance to settle the trade dispute through negotiations.

The Brazilian government published a list of 100 U. S. goods March 8 subject to import tariffs that will go into effect in 30 days. The list includes a tariff increase on cars to 50 per cent from 35 per cent, a rise on wheat tariffs to 30 per cent from 10 per cent, and a 48 per cent levy on milk powder, up from 28 per cent. Cotton and cotton products would be charged 100 per cent import tariff.

The World Trade Organization gave Brazil the go-ahead last year to impose sanctions on U. S. imports after ruling the U. S. government spent too much subsidizing cotton farmers and on an export credit guarantee program.

The Office of the U. S. Trade Representative (USTR) said: “USTR has worked to reach a solution to the issues in this dispute without Brazil resorting to countermeasures and we continue to prefer a negotiated solution.”

The trade dispute began in 2002 and is one of the few in which the WTO allowed cross-retaliation – that clears the way for the wronged party to retaliate against a sector not involved in the case.

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John Hill, an economist for CME – the world’s largest derivatives exchange – said the rise in biofuels output posed a threat to agricultural commodity stocks, despite increasing production.

“Agricultural commodity stocks are extremely low when we look at the stocks-to-use ratio for the past 10 years… even though production has increased,” Hill said in a presentation in Johannesburg.

While corn output has grown by about 30 per cent since 1999, Hill said ending stocks have dropped by almost 25 per cent in the same period.

Wheat had also seen a similar trend, with output rising 16 per cent and ending stocks falling 19 per cent since 1999 on the back of soaring demand.

“As (corn) prices increased, so did acreage. However, demand for biofuels and from livestock feeding continued to chip away at ending stocks,” Hill said.

Farm gate prices for grain and soybeans have doubled this decade, boosted by a boom in ethanol production and supply crunches in some parts of the world caused by drought.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says a third of this year’s corn crop in the U. S. – the world’s biggest corn grower – will be used to make fuel ethanol, compared with 11 per cent of the 2004 crop.

Ethanol is responsible for more U. S. farmland each year.

“By 2015, they’re looking at something like 38 per cent of the corn crop going to ethanol production,” Hill said.

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IFC director for global agribusiness, Oscar Chemerinsky, said the lender would continue to ramp up its agribusiness investments as part of efforts to help increase food production and supplies on the continent.

“We’re looking at doubling our investment from the past fiscal year to about $200 million in 2009 throughout the whole agribusiness supply chain,” Washington-based Chemerinsky told Reuters in an interview, adding it planned to raise its investment to about $400 million a year by 2011.

In 2008 the corporation pumped $116 million into agribusiness companies in Africa as food shortages increased and prices soared, when many people on the continent could not afford the basics.

The IFC said it would seek to tap into Africa’s vast potential as a supplier of agricultural commodities, which was largely due to its rich farming land.

“Looking at the long term, Africa can become an important supplier of agricommodities to the world,” Chemerinsky said.

The high food prices last year and the global financial crisis has transformed the sector that long struggled with underinvestment but is now attracting new investors, including large investment funds.

“I think this crisis has had quite an important impact on our agribusiness operations and mostly in the type of operations we fund…the type of projects or sponsors that approach us and the type of investments that we are invited to participate,” Chemerinsky said.

“Demand, if anything, has increased for our services and we have to be very selective in terms of the type of investment which we choose to finance,” he said.

The IFC does not target individual farmers but works with banks in Africa to provide lending and technical support to growers and other agribusiness firms.

It has also started working with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), headed by former UN chief Kofi Annan, to unlock credit and financing for small-scale farmers and agribusinesses across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Chemerinsky said the corporation would focus more on investments that would raise food output and supplies and could reduce the negative impact of further potential increases in food prices.

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If agreed, the deal could become one of the biggest farming land ventures by an Asian or Middle Eastern country in Africa.

“China has approached the Zambian government to plant two million hectares of jatropha in Zambia,” BAZ director Tyson Chisambo told Reuters on the sidelines of a biofuels conference.

“We are still waiting for more details,” he said.

Jatropha is a non-food crop whose oil can be used to produce biodiesel. It can be grown on semi-arid land and poses less of a threat to food production than other biofuel feedstocks such as grains and vegetable oils, supporters argue.

Chisambo said Zambia currently had only 10,000 hectares under jatropha, though his association was lobbying for an increase in the acreage.

“We have investors in biofuels from some other countries such as Australia, and there are companies supporting out-grower schemes in the country, so it is a work in progress,” he said.

Zambia is well endowed with both surface and underground water, and its climate is suited to a wide range of crops including wheat, soya bean, cotton, jatropha and sugar cane.

Currently only 15 per cent of the 25 million hectares of arable land is being used for food crop production, a Frost & Sullivan analysis said.

Chinese markets remain hungry for crops grown in Africa and there is debate over whether the money, jobs and expertise they bring will help or just exploit the world’s poorest continent.

South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics had planned to lease a

“We are looking at things like interest-free loans or long-term payment

plans to encourage investment.”

million hectares of Madagascar – equivalent to the size of Qatar – to grow food, reducing the Asian country’s dependence on U. S. or South American imports.

But the island’s new leader, Andry Rajoelina, called off the deal, saying the land was neither for rent nor sale, exposing the risks of such ventures in Africa.

BIOFUELS PROMISE

Chisambo told the conference earlier that Zambia’s government had approved an energy policy which incorporates renewable energy and biofuels.

It has allowed for biofuels to be traded as a petroleum product and defined standards for biodiesel and bioethanol.

He said Zambia still needed to develop proper incentives and define blending ratios and timelines. Possible incentives for the sector included putting in place duty-free arrangements for machinery imports and funding incentives, he said.

“We are looking at things like interest-free loans or long-term payment plans to encourage investment,” he said.

Industry analysts say Zambia exhibits significant potential as producer and consumer of biofuel products, owing to a rise in fuel demand on the back of a thriving copper-mining industry and suitable feedstock production sites.

Frost & Sullivan said the country could produce as much as 50 million litres of biofuels by 2013.

But the development of the industry will depend on multinationals and investors to transfer skills, fund the venture and assist with sustainable feedstock development.

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Erhard Seilar, chief executive of the Southern African Biofuels Association, said the region’s farming sector stood to gain most from the growth of the fledgling sector, which has been touted as a partial solution to Africa’s energy problems.

“In our view, biofuels offer the largest stable market for agriculture in southern Africa,” Seilar told the fourth African biofuels conference. “Biodiesel and bioethanol producers are also potential co-generators of electricity.”

He said farmers in the region needed to start growing crops that would be specifically used to make biofuels, and calm fears about biofuels production threatening food security.

Hopes are high that the growth of the biofuel industry in Africa could reduce the continent’s reliance on expensive fuel imports through the use of biodiesel and bioethanol.

Africa is a minor biofuel producer with an ageing vehicle fleet largely run on diesel, and ill-adapted for conversion to biofuel use.

However, some countries like Malawi have been producing sugar cane-based ethanol for more than 30 years, and a new shift towards the use of jatropha – a non-food crop whose oil can be used to produce biodiesel and which poses less of a threat to food security – is emerging.

JATROPHA FARMING

Experts say Africa is well suited to biofuel production because it has plenty of available land, a climate fit for different biofuel feedstocks, and low labour costs.

But investment in the sector has been hampered by poor infrastructure, underdeveloped legislation and a loose regulatory framework.

Farming groups and companies in the industry have urged governments to fast track policies and laws to develop the continent’s biofuels sector.

Some experts said governments were concerned about food security, and biofuels lobby groups need to find a way of assuring governments that food security would not be affected.

“One of the biggest problems that we have is the lack of political will, particularly in the southern and central Africa context,” Adrian Wynne, industr ial af fairs director at the South Africa Canegrowers Associat ion said.

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