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Johannesburg - South Africa can produce enough maize for both grain-based fuels and human consumption, a senior official at
Investec said on Thursday, dismissing food security concerns as an "unnecessary debate".
"To get a biofuels industry off the ground in South Africa, several misconceptions must first be knocked on the head. The most emotional by far is an unnecessary debate that we'd be trading food security for fuel security," said Fazel Moosa of Investec's Project and Infrastructure Unit.
His comments follow government's decision late last year that maize would be excluded in the production of biofuels, citing food security concerns and high prices.
Moosa noted that local farmers farmed on as much as 5 million hectares of maize 30 years ago but this area dropped to between 3 to 4 million hectares in the 1990s and this decade only 1.5 to 3 million hectares were under cultivation.
"Land under maize production has declined to levels last seen in the 1920s. Therefore plenty of land is available to devote to maize-for-ethanol production without risking a food shortage," he explained.
- I-Net Bridge