A/HRC/7/5 page 20 areas of Matabeleland South, Masvingo and Matabeleland North provinces.54 Land degradation also causes migration and intensifies conflict over resources, particularly between pastoral and farming communities, as the Special Rapporteur witnessed in Niger and in Ethiopia.55 Many conflicts in Africa, including the one in the Darfur region, are linked to worsening droughts, desertification and related fights over resources.56 52. Eradicating hunger and fully realizing the right to food will therefore depend on efforts to address the global problems of desertification and land degradation and on the effective implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa. Unfortunately, few resources are directed towards rural drylands. International efforts to combat hunger - including poverty reduction strategies - still pay little attention to the problems of land degradation and desertification. Donors do respond to severe droughts by offering food aid, but provide little in the way of longer-term development aid that would break the cycle of repeated drought, degradation and destitution. While food aid saves lives, it does not save livelihoods - it is not a long-term solution, as the Special Rapporteur has found in various countries of the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.57 F. Biofuels 53. An issue of grave concern for the right to food is the effect that biofuels will have upon hunger. In his last report to the General Assembly (A/62/289), the Special Rapporteur labelled the sudden, ill-conceived, rush to convert food - such as maize, wheat, sugar and palm oil - into fuels as a recipe for disaster. It is estimated that it takes about 200 kg of maize to fill one car’s tank with biofuels (about 50 litres), which is enough food to feed one person for one year.58 There are therefore serious risks of creating a battle between food and fuel that will leave the poor and hungry in developing countries at the mercy of rapidly rising prices for food, land and water. If agro-industrial methods are pursued to turn food into fuel, then there are also risks that unemployment and violations of the right to food may result unless specific measures are put in place to ensure that biofuels contribute to the development of small-scale peasant and family farming. 54. The sudden explosion of interest in biofuels is evident in massive increases in investment and the setting of ambitious renewable-fuel targets across Western countries. The European Union requires that biofuels provide 5.75 per cent of Europe’s transport power by 2010 and 54 IFAD, Rural Poverty Report 2001: The Challenge of Ending Rural Poverty. 55 E/CN.4/2005/47/Add.1, E/CN.4/2006/44. 56 M. Leighton, “Desertification and Migration” in P.M. Johnson, K. Mayrand, M. Paquin, op.cit. 57 E/CN.4/2005/47/Add.1, E/CN.4/2006/44. 58 F. Nicolino, La faim, la bagnole, le blé et nous. Une dénonciation des biocarburants, 2007.