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For this reason, the government fined-tuned its rice policies to limit China’s reliance on the world market in most years. For instance, when faced with a mounting surplus in the early 2000s, it reduced supply incentives to cut excess production rather than unloading surpluses on external markets through extraordinarily large exports. The reverse held true in 2004, when the Government responded to rising prices by reintroducing minimum protective prices, to sustain production growth and reduce the need for imports.

The number of countries eventually engaging in biofuels production, and the amount of ethanol produced from grains, remains unclear at this stage. In the long run, however, it seems quite likely that grain- and sugar-based ethanol – as well as vegetable oil based biodiesel – could become successively replaced by more efficient ways of biofuel production. Two technologies are being developed with promising perspectives: the enzyme-based use of cellulosis and hemi-cellulosis6 to produce ethanol, and the two-step process of Biomass-to-Liquid (BTL) resulting in tailored fuels for both Otto and Diesel vehicles.

3). 3. 0 Source: OECD and FAO Secretariats. 1787/567541332883 In contrast, land planted to wheat and coarse grains is expected to grow by less than 5% globally between 2005 and 2015. Relatively high production costs, fostered by energy prices that stay well above the levels of the early years of this decade, should limit further area expansion. Most of the additional land will be used for the production of coarse grains in a number of African countries, including Nigeria. Additional land will also come into production in Latin America (mostly Brazil, but also Argentina).