Diversion of food grains for production of ethanol for blending with gasoline and diesel has been blamed for the inflationary trend felt world over for the these staples. While Brazil leads the world in using sugarcane based ethanol for manufacture of blended automobile fuels, China is not far behind in taking this route. By 2010 China wants to reach a target of 6.7 million tons (mt) of blended ethanol and 11 mt of blended bio-diesel and ethanol for this purpose at present comes from wheat (60%), corn (20%), cassava (10%) and sweet potato (10%). If this trend continues there is going to be pressure on the food front.
"China is the world's second largest corn producer, but a growing appetite for grain combined with ambitious fuel ethanol targets may make the country a net corn importer, possibly as early as this year. China may become net corn importer despite move away from grain ethanol. At present, grain accounts for about 80 percent of biofuel feedstock, and consumers are finding themselves at increased competition with the country's burgeoning energy needs for limited domestic resources".
According to present plans Chinese government wants to avoid corn imports by expanding cultivation of Cassava, Sweet Potato and sweet Sorghum. How far such an objective will fructify remains to be seen. Though China hosts 20% of world's population, it has less than 7% of global farmland. The experience vis-à-vis Soybean should not be forgotten where in less than 15 years China became a massive importer of this commodity from a predominant exporter earlier. According many experts China does not possess necessary technology for cellulosic ethanol which is going to be most acceptable in future.
V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
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