ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Biodiesel Fuels Family Agriculture

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 19 2004 (IPS) - Environmentalists and the Brazilian government agree that biodiesel should be incorporated into the country’s range of energy options in a sustainable manner that would benefit small farmers while protecting the environment from an expansion of monoculture crops.

They warn that care must be taken to avoid the experience of the National Fuel Alcohol Programme, a clean energy scheme that got underway in 1975 in response to the first oil crisis, to reduce dependence on petrol, but which had a serious environmental impact and expanded sugar cane monoculture, driving small farmers off their land and into unstable, low-paying seasonal work.

Brazil’s Environment Ministry has authorised, starting next year, a mixture of two percent biodiesel for motors that run on oil-based diesel fuel – a gradual implementation that will be "the best way forward," Delcio Rodrigues, a researcher with the Vitae Civilis environmental organisation, told IPS.

This way family agriculture can play a part in producing oilseeds as raw materials for the fuel; the impact on rural areas can be assessed; and "the process can be accelerated according to the response capacity" of the agents involved, said Rodriguez, a physicist and energy expert.

Rodriguez said the rapid replacement of fossil fuels would be better for the urban environment, but explained that it would demand accelerated expansion of oilseed production, through a growth in agribusiness and monoculture crops, which would extend "the invasion" and deforestation of the Amazon jungle.

Environment Ministry second-in-command Claudio Langone said the biodiesel policy was "positive", adding that it is a joint effort between several ministries where the priority is to benefit small and mid-scale farmers, especially in the areas of greatest poverty.

The castor-oil plant has therefore become the firm favourite. This plant has great productive potential on low-fertility land – even in the semi-arid areas of northeastern Brazil, the region with the largest concentration of poor people in the country.

A castor-oil cultivation project has already begun in the municipality of Canto do Burití, in the northeastern state of Piauí. Here, the Brasil Ecodiesel company is settling 560 families in blocks of 35 houses each.

To attract farmers, the settlements offer schools complete with computers and libraries – a luxury in this region – small areas for vegetable gardens and an initial salary to be paid up until the first castor-oil plant harvest.

As a raw material, castor-oil fetches a high price on the international market, as it is used in more than 700 medicinal, cosmetic, lubricant and chemical products.

The possibility of promoting family farms in the northeast and generating income for a large number of people gives castor-oil a great advantage over other vegetable oil products. Soy oil, for instance, is best suited to large-scale production due to the ease of mechanisation.

The Brazilian biodiesel programme will be fully outlined by November. The aim is to include a diversity of sources, taking advantage of local variation. Plans could include castor-oil, palm oil, soy oil, cotton seed, sunflowers and other oil- producing plants, including native species from the Amazon jungle.

Environmentalists see the risk of extensive monoculture being promoted in some areas, with negative effects on the environment and the population.

The fuel alcohol programme – which has replaced one-third of the petrol Brazil would otherwise be consuming today – reduced urban pollution and opened up the prospect of exports, but also generated serious problems.

Sugar cane plantations took over extensive areas, triggering a massive rural exodus and offering employment only in the harvest months.

This led to a proliferation of "boias frias" (cold food) – cane-cutters recruited as casual labour in tough and risky conditions, with months of unemployment guaranteed. Many are forced to travel long distances from their homes and live in shacks and other substandard housing.

Vinasse, the liquid residue from the distillation process, became an environmental problem and contributed to killing off many rivers in cane-growing areas. Later it was used as a fertiliser, but for years it was a fearsome environmental poison.

One pending environmental problem is the burning of the cane fields at harvest. Laws banning the practice encouraged mechanisation, which resolved the pollution issue but drove up unemployment.

Economically, both fuel alcohol or ethanol, and biodiesel could provide Brazil with the Midas touch.

Many countries are starting to add ethanol to petrol to reduce air pollution, and higher oil prices are fuelling that trend.

Figures from the Sugar Cane Agribusiness Union of Sao Paulo (UNICA), which represents Brazil’s biggest growers, show that Brazil exported 930 million litres of fuel alcohol in the first half of the year, 237 percent up on the same period of 2003.

The emergence of cars that run on either petrol or ethanol, or a mixture of the two, is also increasing ethanol consumption within Brazil.

By 2010, the country will be consuming 18 billion litres a year, 50 percent more than at present, projects Luiz Vaz, organiser of the International Symposium and Show of Fuel Alcohol Agribusiness Technology (SIMTEC), held last week in Piracicaga, 180 km outside Sao Paulo.

Biodiesel is the younger brother following in the footsteps of fuel alcohol, said Vaz. Diesel fuel containing two percent biodiesel will represent an estimated savings of at least 1.2 billion dollars in imports of oil by-products next year, he added.