Institute of Development Studies

Unravelling the Biofuel complex: the challenge for agrarian economies

12 October 2010

The varied experiences of small holders resulting from an investment in biofuels is explored in the latest special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies, guest edited by IDS Fellow, Professor Ian Scoones.

In 16 articles, the journal - free to download for a limited time - explores 14 countries' experience of planting biofuels, crops such as palm oil in Indonesia, sugar cane in Brazil, jatropha in India and corn in the United States.

The growth of what is called the 'biofuel complex' represents a major challenge for agrarian economies. Biofuels are now seen as an important investment across the world, driven by a combination of high fuel prices and subsidies for switches to non-fossil fuel energy sources.

The journal articles show, however, that the impacts and consequences of biofuel planting are highly varied. For some it has meant land dispossession, displacement and impoverishment. In other cases, new agricultural opportunities for smallholders have been offered and wage employment created.

As the articles all argue, attention to the political economy of land deals is therefore critical if a broader assessment is to be made.

A global land grab?

Some see biofuel investments as part of a global 'land grab', driving speculation in land by large multinational companies in alliance with local actors. The World Bank recently produced a major report on this theme which assesses the pros and cons. But, as Ian Scoones recently discussed in a comment piece for the Transnational Institute, some of the key questions are not asked by the Bank.

For example, why is it that governments prefer large-scale deals over investment in smallholder farming? What factors are pushing the investment in land as an asset? What global connections between states, financiers and private businesses are significant? And how is it that the terms of incorporation within leases, contracts and partnership deals seem always to fail the smallholder?

These questions were debated at a side-event, Competing Views and Strategies on Global Land Grabbing, at the 36th Session of the World Committee on Food Security at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Convened by civil society groups in alliance with academic researchers, including Ian Scoones, the event debated the way forward for governance approaches which address land grabbing effectively. On the table were the World Bank's Responsible Agricultural Investment Principles and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Land and Natural Resource Tenure.

Rights matter

Coming from different perspectives, both offer broad-brush listings of what needs to be done. Yet, as Professor Scoones observed: 'Both have technical-managerialist assumptions embedded in them.'

He maintained that such voluntary guidelines and principles will not work in practice: 'Alliances of states and external capital are strong, governance capacity is weak and mechanisms for oversight for monitoring and redress effectively non-existent.'

Instead, he argued: 'Rights to land, food and livelihoods are at the core of these struggles.' This is, he observes, 'a critical moment for the international community. Any response requires support to citizens, movements and others to hold governments and companies to account, within a strong rights-based framework.'

Related Links

• Call for submissions to Future Agricultures Consortium conference on 'global land grabbing' at IDS
• Journal of Peasant Studies special 'biofuels' issue