The need for an alternative energy strategy in the agricultural economies of the Third World

Chris Lewis

Energy, 1984, vol. 9, issue 8, 651-659

Abstract: The relationship between energy availability and food productivity is examined for 31 developing countries which obtain at least 30% of their Gross Domestic Products (GDP) from agriculture. In those countries where energy is particularly scarce, such as many of the African states, food production is now falling behind population growth rates. Since these countries now have to spend more of their own export earnings on imported energy, mainly oil, than hitherto, their main opportunity for acquiring needed energy supplies for agriculture is in the form of locally produced energy, chiefly as biofuels within decentralised integrated energy systems at the village community level. Such an alternative energy strategy is shown to be feasible and necessary to prevent the already low nutritional standards of the world's poorest countries from deteriorating even further.

Date: 1984
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:9:y:1984:i:8:p:651-659

DOI: 10.1016/0360-5442(84)90094-X

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