The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
Biofuels are held up as a relatively easy solution to the twin problems of petroleum dependence and carbon emissions. But new research suggests that fuels such as corn-based ethanol may cause as many problems as they solve. Clearing new land and converting existing cropland to certain fuel feedstocks can actually …
The recent surge in world food prices is already creating havoc in poor countries, and worse is to come. Food riots are spreading across Africa, though many are unreported in the international press. Moreover, the surge in wheat, maize and rice prices seen on commodities markets have not yet fully …
Agriculture secre tary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzzsaw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week. Mr Schafer took the offensive at a press conference on Thursday that discussed the food summit, planned …
Ahead of a global summit on the food crisis, the United Nations called on world leaders on Wednesday to agree to urgent measures to ease demand for grains and ease high food prices. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations suggested that countries might need …
The present food crisis is due to lack of proper distribution and the trading system impeding free flow of food, according to the vice chairman of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Victor Fung. He said that as a short-term measure it was essential to address the problem of distribution and …
This article examines interactions among climate change, political-economic interventions and technical progress, focusing on the impacts of biofuels in the Amazon and Cerrado regions in Brazil.
Some model experiments predict a large-scale substitution of Amazon forest by savannah-like vegetation by the end of the twenty-first century. Expanding global demands for biofuels and grains, positive feedbacks in the Amazon forest fire regime and drought may drive a faster process of forest degradation that could lead to a …
Make clean fuel or feed the world? That's the dilemma facing biofuel producers now that the world food crisis is making the turning of food crops into biofuel seem increasingly irresponsible. But maybe there's a way out. Mariam Sticklen of Michigan State University in East Lansing and colleagues have engineered …
A Palestinian-designed electric car drew admiring stares on Tuesday from Gazans forced to use cooking oil to power their cars because of a fuel shortage. "At first people laughed, saying it would not work, now people are begging us to convert their cars," said Fayez Amman. Working with fellow electrical …
This global food crisis is a complex problem that cannot be solved with simplistic approaches. More effective and coherent action is needed now to help the most vulnerable populations cope with the drastic hikes in their food bills and to assist developing countries with strategies to increase agricultural productivity, according …
The Directorate of Open and Distance Learning of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, is currently offering twenty one certificate courses for the benefit of farmers, entrepreneurs and self-help groups. Course details Giving details on the several courses being offered, Dr. G. Selvaraj, Director, said the courses were in …
in the first week of April, thousands of people stormed the presidential palace in Haiti, throwing stones and demanding the resignation of President Rene Preval over soaring food prices. In reasonably prosperous Malaysia, the ruling coalition was nearly ousted by voters who cited food and fuel price increases as their …
In the first week of April, EU's Scientific Committee called for the suspension of the region's biofuel targets citing food crisis and unavailability of arable land. But on April 21, EU officials stated that the union stood by its target of getting 10 per cent of its road transport fuel …
Did the Nobel Prize committee make a mistake when it gave the 2007 Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former us vice president Al Gore? I wonder. My disquiet is not because the prize recognized and put climate change at the centre of global debate. It …
Ethanol is taking a tumble. Once hyped as a magic brew for reducing both oil addiction and global warming, alcohol made from corn kernels is now being accused both of triggering a global food crisis and doing more ecological harm than good. Ethanol critics, ranging from environmental groups to pig …
A senior World Bank official said on Thursday that countries should not greatly increase biofuels production until there is more clarity about how much they have contributed to the global food price crisis. Juergen Voegele, director for agriculture and rural development department at the World Bank, cautioned against shifting a …
This requires the courage to push new approaches but even the Nobel Prize favours the cautious. Did the Nobel Prize committee make a mistake when it gave the 2007 Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former US vice-president Al Gore? My disquiet is not because the …
Nandan Biomatrix, a Hyderabad-based agri-biotechnology and medicinal plantation company, is planning to set up bioinvestment eco-industrial zones (BIEZs) across the country. The project aims to bring fallow land under jatropha cultivation, which will be used to make biofuel. B Jaya Kumar, director (technical), said, "BIEZs would work to achieve energy …
