Population Growth, Biofuel Production and Food Security

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of population growth on food security given the level of biofuel using a panel data of 57 developing countries. Adopting generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, interaction term between population growth and biofuel has a negative and significant impact on food security. This implies that as the population grows, the effects of biofuel on food security worsen. Additionally, we look at the related problem for each of the four dimensions of food security—availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability. In doing so, this study supports the earlier finding that the impact of biofuel on food security tends to worsen as a country's population grows across all four aspects of food security. Thus, this study points to many policy implications for dealing with the effect of biofuel production on food security in light of population expansion.