Capital traders call for ban on using crops to produce fuel

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) on Sunday expressed concern over increasing trend of using crops to produce fuel and called for a worldwide ban on it as it is against the interests of human population.

Using crops to produce fuel in a bid to reduce dependence on fossil fuel is a failed initiative, which should be abandoned immediately, said Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders’ Patron Shahid Rasheed Butt.

He said that a ban on bio-fuels production can save the world from food crisis and improve food security situation while reducing malnutrition and starvation around the world. Agricultural systems are subject to weather which, if become unfriendly, can lead to severe grain shocks resulting in food security issues, he added.

Shahid Rasheed Butt said that all the countries, especially the US, should revisit politically attractive policies like reduced dependence on fossil fuel to care for the hungry mouths around the world.

He said that suspension of bio-fuel production, relaxing fuel blending rules and discouraging fresh investments in the production can boost supplies to people and livestock.He informed that renewable energy production in the US was only equivalent to about 40 percent of total maize production, which can be channelled towards food uses.

Bio-fuel accounts for 12 percent or nine billion gallons of all automotive fuel sold in the US; every gallon is derived from 12kg of corn.Around 350kg of corn is converted into fuel to fill the tank of a car which is sufficient to feed two persons in any developing country for a year, he said and demanded that America is using 33 percent of the corn production to make fuel which is satisfying 1.3 percent of its total oil consumption. Many other countries are also perusing bio-fuel policy at a time when nearly 60 percent of the world population goes hungry.Policymakers, around the world, should reconsider encouraging the bio-fuels which add to suffering of economies, environment, and the world.