Tuesday, April 7, 2009

With the emergence of the biofuels business opportunity around the world, ordinary land with all the fertilizer, can still not meet the biofuels requirement (yet) globally.

So what most biofuels producers in some developed nation do is to plant and multiply GM (Genetically modified) crops to increase the crop/feedstock yield to meet the renewable fuel standards RFS. In the United States, GM crops help farmers meet the growing feedstock demand for biofuels. United States remains the largest single market for both GM crops and biofuels. In 2007, 73% of the corn for ethanol production was GM varieties which were herbicide tolerant and insect resistant.

GM feedstock have help US farmers to increase yield by 30% over the past 10years. In the 2007 US energy bill, 36billion gallons (In 2008, US produced 9billion gallons) of US fuel supply will be biofuels by 2022. Genetic modification involves inserting one or more foreign genes, which can be derived from numerous different species, into the genome of a host organism, thereby providing it with a new characteristics or traits. Any living organism can be genetically modified, including human beings but this technique is mostly applied to crop plants in other to boost the crop yield. In plants, the foreign genes are first inserted into individual cells, often by transporting the genes within a virus or bacterium or blasting the cells with a gene gun. These plant cells are then encouraged to multiply and grow.

But there is a general belief on the negative health and environmental effects of GM crop when producing ethanol meant for food grade and for other purposes other than as fuel. The fraternity between GM crop and biofuels in the US is banned in the whole of EU. One of the perceptions in the EU is that the foreign gene added to GM crops might escape into wild plants and food derived from crops could pose a serious health risk to the consumers. Both the environmental and consumer groups in the EU continue to assert that GM crops pose unacceptable risks. As a result, the European commission introduced a comprehensive regulatory regime for GM crops in 2003 and majority of trials of GM crops (grown by 8 EU member countries; Germany, Portugal, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Poland) still have not received regulatory approval in Europe.

As we have anti biofuels, so also we have anti GM crops in Europe. In Feb, 2008 the environmental group friends of the earth published a brief relationship between GM crops and biofuels in the EU and says:

"A GM crop provides no advantage when producing agrofuels/biofuels. GM feedstock for ethanol production raise unacceptable health and environmental concerns as well as lead to further intensification of agriculture and increase corporate control of agriculture. In addition, crops engineered with unnatural characteristics intended for biofuels will inevitably contaminate human food supplies. Therefore, use of GM crops and trees should not be permitted in the production of agrofuels in the EU"

Despite what the Friends of the Earth claims, GM crops are accepted and welcome in many countries of the world and the leading country is the United States. More than 6 yrs ago, the EU and its member states ratified the Kyoto protocol to the United Nations framework convention on climate change, to reduce collective GHG emission by 8% by 2012. In the EU, GM crops or products made from GM crops are not approved to be imported to the EU countries. The negative effect of this is that the biofuels industry in the EU will not have competitive advantage. It will mean producing biofuels in US, Brazil and Canada and import to the EU. This will of course consumes more energy and means European ethanol producers are building production capacity in other parts of the world and not in Europe. To meet the 10% biofuels mandate of European commission by 2020, EU must approve development and use of GM biomass, grass and cellulose in the EU but this has not happened.

In Nigeria, the reality on the ground is that there is no serious commitment on biofuels from the government side yet in terms of well disseminated biofuels policy and laws as done in other countries. We import petrol blended with 5% of ethanol and DPR monitors compliance but the petrol from our functioning refineries is never blended with ethanol.

How can we be said to be committed to the Kyoto agreement on environment and climate change? How can we be said to be serious on the clean energy technology? I think the use of GM crops for biofuels for exclusive use as transportation fuel should be allowed for now. Again, this is when we have biofuels laws to capture this. The movement and multiplications of GM crops should be monitored and controlled until the controversy surrounding the health implication of GM crops is resolved among the scientists, environmentalists and other stakeholders.

Nigerian government must come up with aggressive awareness on the direction for biofuels industry and support for climate change in clear terms. Relevant departments in the Universities and the research institutes in Ibadan, Umudike and elsewhere must advise government and general public on the health implications of planting and using GM crops for ethanol production in Nigeria especially when the ethanol grades are for beverage, industrial/pharmaceutical purposes. Year 2008 was characterized by several unserious and over ambitious biofuels producers who did not know the requirements of this industry.

They could not synergize the current infrastructures with the needs of the biofuels industry. So serious investors, in this industry must be conscious of the possible government decision on the proliferation of the GM crops n Nigeria. The old carpenter adage remains "measure severally and cut once" If you plan to export your bio-ethanol to the EU (your closest buyer), then think twice before using GM crops as your feedstock.

All of these should be stated in the Nigerian biofuels Laws when they are out. Nigerian government must bring together, biofuels equipment manufacturers and suppliers, relevant government agencies (Energy commission, Agriculture, Finance, NIPC, NEPC, commerce & industry, SON, NAFDAC, NESREA), farmers, trade associations, law firms, R & D companies, project developers and operators, systems providers, banks/lenders, architects construction and rigging companies etc to discuss the roles GM crops will play in our nascent biofuels industry.

The way some countries frown at Clone is the way EU is rejecting GM crops in ethanol production for health reasons. Nigeria too, must take a global decision on this. We all agree that global warming and climate change threats are real and that this could results in loss of natural resources which could include drops in rainfall, food shortages, drought, desertification and poor livestock and fishery yields. The solution to this is not only to put an end to gas flaring by the oil companies in Nigeria but also to establish a vibrant and formidable biofuels industry in Nigeria. The Nigerian biofuels industry must meet all the basic 3 sustainability criteria namely:

a. Ethanol production must not negatively affect the land where the feedstock is grown, including animal life and water resources for the land as well as land's ability to sequester carbon-dioxide.

b. Ethanol must not be produced in a way that negatively affects the price and availability of food especially within the community where the factory is sited. The quality of life of those who live or work on the land must also not be impaired (i.e environment and people's well being). Feedstock availability is a precondition for sustainability.

c. There must be savings in the GHG (Greenhouse gases) which must be accounted for along the entire supply chain from the feedstock field to the biofuels pump station. Air quality test must reflect in the EIA report of the ethanol producer.

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