Congo: Gunning for biofuels

The Republic of Congo plans to set aside part of its arable land for biofuel production, even as a debate rages over the part played by biofuels in the current global food crisis.

20 Jun 2008

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said he wants a balance between land reserved for food cultivation and land. (Image: Laudes Martial Mbon/IRIN)

Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Rigobert Maboundou, reckons biofuels have been overly maligned of late.

“If there were no bioethanol and biodiesel petrol prices would be even higher than they are today,” he told a news conference on 14 June.

“We are working to develop a balance within agriculture in land use between land reserved for food cultivation and land reserved for biofuels,” Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said a few days earlier after returning from Rome where he took part in a high-level UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) summit on food security, climate change and biofuels.

Congo has 8.2 million hectares of arable land. Less than 15 percent of this land is cultivated.

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