22/12/2009 (Bristol Indymedia) - Anthra, a Non-Governmental Organisation from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has condemned green claims by biofuel power company W4B as false and warn that their plans will undermine farmers livelihoods and food sovereignty in India.(1) W4B are seeking permission to build vegetable oil power stations in Portland and Avonmouth. They claim that they would burn palm oil initially, then switch to another oilseed crop, jatropha, saying this can be sourced from India among other countries, and that it is ‘sustainable’. Anthra, works with rural communities affected by jatropha and has seen at first hand how misleading these claims are. Anthra calls W4B’s plans ‘unscrupulous’ and their claims about jatropha growing in ‘relatively poor soil’ and requiring ‘no drinking water’ ‘completely false’.

Anthra stresses that jatropha has been planted “on the homelands and territories of Indigenous people” in Andhra Pradesh. “Most saplings have died. Those that have survived are stunted in their growth with no signs of flowering and fruiting…Farmers have been forced to make huge investments in term of irrigation, ploughing and manuring to get a good yield from Jatropha at the cost of their food.” Anthra explains that “Jatropha cultivation is completely unsustainable and hazardous…it undermines the food sovereignty and rights of farmers to autonomy over food production and its related land and water.” They further state: “It is time to make markets, governments and companies accountable.” They stress the seriousness of jatropha displacing food production and destroying rural livelihoods in a country where 21% of all people are malnurourished, and 43.5% of all children up to the age of five.

Almuth Ernsting from Biofuelwatch states: “We hope that Councillors and Planning Officers in Bristol and Portland will take full account of this information, which we are forwarding to them today. They must not be misled by W4B’s claims about the impacts of their biofuel plans, which disregard the realities in the global South.”

Robert Palgrave from Food not Fuel adds: “Plans by W4B and other companies which have applied to build biofuel power station in the UK will lead to more investment in jatropha and thus to more land-grabbing and hunger in countries like India. Yet, because of the poor record with jatropha harvests, palm oil from South-east Asia is still likely to be the main source of those biofuels, causing more rainforest and peatland destruction, more community displacement and more global warming.”

Other organisations in India and other countries affected by biofuel expansion in general and jatropha expansion in particular have also condemned monocultures for biofuels and the policies which are driving them.(2) Large-scale evictions of small farmers for jatropha have been reported from countries including Tanzania and Ghana, while in Paraguay, jatropha threatens forests and indigenous peoples.