Energy and Agriculture
An Overview
“A agricultura é essencialmente a atividade humana que converte energia solar, nutrientes vegetais e água em energia de biomassa por meio de plantas e animais.”
Energy and agriculture are deeply intertwined
Prepared within PROTAAL, a cooperative research project on agricultural technology in Latin America, this 1981 paper offers an overview of energy use in agriculture and its implications for development.
The document was prepared for the seminar “Cambio Técnico en el Agro Latinoamericano: Situación y Perspectivas en la Década de 1980” (Technical Change in Latin American Agriculture: Situation and Prospects in the 1980s), organized by IICA/PNUD in Coronado, Costa Rica, in September 1981. It is re-edited and presented by the Zambuling Institute for Human Transformation.
Energy in figures
- < 5%A agricultura global responde por menos de 5 por cento do uso de energia comercial.
- 175 milhõesde toneladas de equivalente de petróleo: consumo de energia comercial na agricultura mundial em 1972/73.
- 85%O nitrogênio químico representa até 85 por cento do uso de energia comercial na produção de fertilizantes.
- 10 vezesA produção de energia de biomassa em base global é talvez 10 vezes a energia consumida a cada ano na forma de gás e óleo.
Dentro do livro
Background and Perspective
- Energy and agricultural prices
- Dimensions of adjustment
Agriculture as a User of Energy
- Toward a profile of energy use
- Energy in fertilizers and other agro-chemicals
- Energy and farm machinery
- Energy and irrigation
- Energy in agricultural processing and distribution
- Energy and fisheries
Agriculture as a Source of Energy
- Fuelwood
- Vegetable oils as diesel fuel substitutes
- Biomass alcohol
- Biogas
- Biological fixation of nitrogen
- Animal draft power
- Conservation as an energy source
Annexes
- Commercial Energy Use and Cereal Output Per Hectare and Per Agricultural Worker, 1972
- Agriculture as a Source and User of Energy: An Example From China
- Alternative Processes for the Conversion and Use of Solar Energy
- Adjustment to Higher Energy Prices: An Example in Food Processing
Nas palavras do autor
“Increasingly, adequate supplies of energy, both commercial and noncommercial, are as important to economic growth and development as land, labor and capital.”
“The fuelwood crisis warrants a high priority by the development community and every country should be encouraged to have a long-term national fuelwood or rural energy program.”
“Higher energy costs will also encourage significant adjustment in agricultural processing and distribution and, over a longer time period, in the location of agricultural production.”
“By nature of their rural orientation, biomass energy projects have the potential to affect, for better or worse, the welfare of large numbers of low income groups.”
“In many circumstances, conservation may be the most effective means to reduce dependence of agriculture on commercial energy.”
“In view of the present and likely (greater) future importance of draft animals in agriculture, this type of research and development work appears to be greatly underfunded.”
Download the PDF (abre em uma nova aba)“Adjustments to a changed energy environment should be equitable and equitable access to energy resources is becoming as important as access to food, jobs and public services.”