IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2017-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Land and agronomic potential for biofuel production in Southern Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Michael von Maltitz
  • Marna van der Merwe

Abstract

The Southern African region, from a purely biophysical perspective, has huge potential for biofuel production, especially in Mozambique and Zambia. Although many of the soils are sandy and acidic, with careful management and correct fertilization, they should be highly productive. We suggest that sugarcane is the crop most easily mobilized for biofuel. A number of other crops, such as sweet sorghum, cassava, and tropical sugar beet, have good potential but will need further agronomic and processing technology investigations.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael von Maltitz & Marna van der Merwe, 2017. "Land and agronomic potential for biofuel production in Southern Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-85, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2017-85
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2017-85.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. You, Liangzhi & Wood, Stanley & Wood-Sichra, Ulrike & Wu, Wenbin, 2014. "Generating global crop distribution maps: From census to grid," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 53-60.
    2. Haque, Mohua & Epplin, Francis M., 2010. "Switchgrass to Ethanol: A Field to Fuel Approach," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61294, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Sebastian, Kate, 2014. "Synopsis of Atlas of african agriculture research and development: Revealing agriculture's place in Africa:," Issue briefs 82, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Graham Von Maltitz & Alexandros Gasparatos & Christo Fabricius, 2014. "The Rise, Fall and Potential Resilience Benefits of Jatropha in Southern Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-29, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tito Francisco Ianda & Emerson Andrade Sales & Ademar Nogueira Nascimento & Antonio Domingos Padula, 2020. "Optimizing the Cooperated “Multi-Countries” Biodiesel Production and Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-25, September.
    2. KeChrist Obileke & Patrick Mukumba & Mahali Elizabeth Lesala, 2024. "Advancement of Bioenergy Technology in South Africa," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-19, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Graham von Maltitz & Marna van der Merwe, 2017. "Land and agronomic potential for biofuel production in Southern Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 085, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Richmond Antwi-Bediako & Kei Otsuki & Annelies Zoomers & Aklilu Amsalu, 2019. "Global Investment Failures and Transformations: A Review of Hyped Jatropha Spaces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-23, June.
    3. Channing Arndt & William Farmer & Kenneth Strzepek & James Thurlow, 2012. "Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Tanzania," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 378-393, August.
    4. António Xavier & Rui Fragoso & Maria Belém Costa Freitas & Maria Socorro Rosário, 2019. "An Approach Using Entropy and Supervised Classifications to Disaggregate Agricultural Data at a Local Level," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(4), pages 763-779, December.
    5. Graham von Maltitz, 2017. "Options for suitable biofuel farming: Experience from Southern Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Gasparatos, A. & von Maltitz, G.P. & Johnson, F.X. & Lee, L. & Mathai, M. & Puppim de Oliveira, J.A. & Willis, K.J., 2015. "Biofuels in sub-Sahara Africa: Drivers, impacts and priority policy areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 879-901.
    7. Atsushi Iimi & Liangzhi You & Ulrike Wood-Sichra, 2020. "Spatial Autocorrelation Panel Regression: Agricultural Production and Transport Connectivity," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 529-547, June.
    8. Jha, Priyanka & Schmidt, Stefan, 2021. "State of biofuel development in sub-Saharan Africa: How far sustainable?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    9. Thomas, Timothy S. & Dorosh, Paul A. & Robertson, Richard D., 2020. "Climate change impacts on crop yields," IFPRI book chapters, in: Ethiopia's agrifood system: Past trends, present challenges, and future scenarios, chapter 4, pages 97-113, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Graham von Maltitz, 2017. "Options for suitable biofuel farming: Experience from Southern Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 100, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Ahmed, Abubakari & Gasparatos, Alexandros, 2020. "Multi-dimensional energy poverty patterns around industrial crop projects in Ghana: Enhancing the energy poverty alleviation potential of rural development strategies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Gao, Yukun & Zhao, Hongfang & Zhao, Chuang & Hu, Guohua & Zhang, Han & Liu, Xue & Li, Nan & Hou, Haiyan & Li, Xia, 2022. "Spatial and temporal variations of maize and wheat yield gaps and their relationships with climate in China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    13. Conde, Sidafa & Jalloh, Abdulai & Nelson, Gerald C. & Thomas, Timothy S., 2013. "Guinea," IFPRI book chapters, in: Jalloh, Abdulai & Nelson, Gerald C. & Thomas, Timothy S. & Zougmore, Robert & Roy-Macauley, Harold (ed.), West African agriculture and climate change: A comprehensive analysis, chapter 7, pages 173-202, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    14. Miller, J. Corey & Coble, Keith H., 2011. "Incentives Matter: Assessing Biofuel Policies in the South," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 43(3), pages 1-9, August.
    15. Carriquiry, Miguel A. & Du, Xiaodong & Timilsina, Govinda R., 2011. "Second generation biofuels: Economics and policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 4222-4234, July.
    16. Khouma, Mamadou & Jalloh, Abdulai & Thomas, Timothy S. & Nelson, Gerald C., 2013. "Senegal," IFPRI book chapters, in: Jalloh, Abdulai & Nelson, Gerald C. & Thomas, Timothy S. & Zougmore, Robert & Roy-Macauley, Harold (ed.), West African agriculture and climate change: A comprehensive analysis, chapter 11, pages 291-322, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Iimi,Atsushi & You,Liangzhi & Wood-Sichra,Ulrike & Humphrey,Richard Martin, 2015. "Agriculture production and transport infrastructure in east Africa : an application of spatial autoregression," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7281, The World Bank.
    18. Sánchez, A.S. & Almeida, M.B. & Torres, E.A. & Kalid, R.A. & Cohim, E. & Gasparatos, A., 2018. "Alternative biodiesel feedstock systems in the Semi-arid region of Brazil: Implications for ecosystem services," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2744-2758.
    19. Johnson, Raymond G. & Kandeh, Mohamed & Jalloh, Abdulai & Nelson, Gerald C. & Thomas, Timothy S., 2013. "Sierra Leone," IFPRI book chapters, in: Jalloh, Abdulai & Nelson, Gerald C. & Thomas, Timothy S. & Zougmore, Robert & Roy-Macauley, Harold (ed.), West African agriculture and climate change: A comprehensive analysis, chapter 12, pages 323-352, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Moseki, Ofentse & Murray-Hudson, Michael & Kashe, Keotshephile, 2019. "Crop water and irrigation requirements of Jatropha curcas L. in semi-arid conditions of Botswana: applying the CROPWAT model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2017-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.