Biofuels: The Best Response of Developing Countries to High Energy Prices? A Case Study for Malawi

If due to increasing fuel prices on the world market, a quick improvement of the trade balance is in the core of the Malawian policy strategy, import substitution with Jatropha production or any other biofuel option does not appear to be a short run solution. Given the challenges to Malawi of a continuous growth in population and the need to develop its rural sector both in terms of increased productivity of subsistence farming and in the production of cash crops which could be alternatives to the existing dominant export crops, developing a biofuel strategy may be premature at the moment.