According to Dr. Josef Schmidhuber, senior economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo, is one of the most promising countries in Africa with a potential to become a top biofuels producer. A major reason is the country’s vast amount of farmland which is suited for planting a wide variety of biofuel crops. In some countries, the land use for food versus biofuels is often a contentious issue. For the case of Congo, Schmidhuber says this need not be an issue, as “there are substantial amounts of arable land outside the precious rainforest areas”. Land allocated for energy crops “should not necessarily be at the expense of food production”, he added. It could actually boost agricultural productivity, because the necessary energy that is required to jumpstart agricultural production can be provided. Among the listed countries with similar biofuel potential are Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe..