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Science 9 May 1980:
Vol. 208. no. 4444, pp. 570 - 574
DOI: 10.1126/science.208.4444.570
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Articles

Animals as an Energy Source in Third World Agriculture

Gerald M. Ward 1, Thomas M. Sutherland 1, and Jean M. Sutherland

1 Professors of animal science at Colorado State University, Fort Collins 80523

Agricultural development programs have so far been largely unable to meet the food needs of the world's poorest. Increased food production can be achieved only from more intensive agriculture, which requires greater energy inputs per farm worker. Problems of technological infrastructure and escalating oil prices appear to preclude the spread of mechanization to Third World agriculture at this time. Efficient utilization of grazing animals in specific integrated farming systems could not only increase energy inputs through draft and transportation but also increase the yield of high-grade products and by-products from the renewable energy of biomass. An approach to development based on animal agriculture systems is suggested that might initiate a self-sustaining, more productive agriculture requiring only small inputs of fossil-fuel energy.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Energy Extraction and Use in a Nomadic Pastoral Ecosystem.
M. B. Coughenour, J. E. Ellis, D. M. Swift, D. L. Coppock, K. Galvin, J. T. McCabe, and T. C. Hart (1985)
Science 230, 619-625
   Abstract »    PDF »
Producer Gas Engines in Villages of Less-Developed Countries.
R. Datta and G. S. Dutt (1981)
Science 213, 731-736
   Abstract »    PDF »


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