1. The Wall Street Journal on why US policy on biofuels is counterproductive and self-defeating (unless you believe its only objective is to raise corn prices); producing 10 litres of ethanol from corn consumes as much energy as 7 litres of gasoline.
2. Researchers from IITA and CIFOR on the impact of the growth of the tropical tree crops (cocoa, rubber and oil palm mostly) on deforestation. They estimate that appropriate fertilizer use could have avoided the deforestation of 2 million hectares in the Guinea rainforest between Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon – worth about 1.3 billion tonnes of CO2e. (I’m hoping that the new regime in Côte d’Ivoire might allow for some progress on this issue, as reuniting the country and cutting back on roadblocks should reduce the differential between the price farmers pay for fertilizer and its wholesale cost in Abidjan).
3. McKinsey on transforming African agriculture. The four lessons they identify are: Focus on a small number of high-impact initiatives; develop output markets to complement supply measures; create clear roles for the private sector; and design implementation into the strategy. Sounds obvious, but surprisingly hard to implement in practice – the incentives of governments and donors are to launch more initiatives than their implementing institutions can usefully handle. (Disclaimer: I contributed to the article).
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