Gov’t may abandon biofuel project

Chen Wu-hsiung, who has been designated as the new chairman of the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA), said the production of agricultural crops for biofuel is not economically feasible for Taiwan because of the limited land available.

He said it would be more suitable for the island to give priority to growing food crops to help reduce imports and the keep food products lower for consumers.

The shift to using agricultural crops to produce biofuel for vehicles in many nations has been blamed as one of the major factors for the skyrocketing food prices in the world, especially in poor countries.

Chen acknowledged the global trend of replacing the traditional gasoline and diesel with biofuel.

But Taiwan does not possess the conditions for similar projects and the small scale of economy of the farm operations here, he said.

Growing crops for food and fruits as well as planting trees will be the top priorities in the future, he added.

Offering subsidies to persuade farmers to grow crops for energy use has been one of the major agricultural development policies of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.

COA officials said the current project to encourage some farmers to switch to growing soybean, sunflower, and rape is not a successful one because of the climate, low yield, and attacks of insects.

Even with government subsidies, the production costs of biofuel from the crops are higher than the market price of biofuel manufactured in other areas.

The costs are even twice the current price for diesel, they noted.

Shen Shih-hung, designated as the new chief of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), said the government should be more cautious in formulating policies of using farmland for non-food purposes.

Instead of fighting for the limited arable land with farmers, developers of new energy sources should make use of other land without compromising food supply, he said.

The other consideration is that the presently available technical know-how and manufacturing equipment may use up more energy and generate more carbon dioxide in the process of converting farm products into biofuel, Shen added.

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