Abstract
Energy plays a crucial role in economic development. The article presents a framework for the analysis of alternative energy technology mixes in agricultural production and applies it in the context of sisal production in the Tanga region, Tanzania. Through scenario analysis, the paper presents both case-specific and generalizable insights. Case-specific insights show the key role that modern uses of energy and modern agricultural technologies could play in increasing productivity and revenues, in minimizing environmental degradation, and in promoting local development. Generalizable insights demonstrate the value of using sector-specific micro-structural frameworks and scenario analysis for assessing different technologies mixes in the energy and agriculture planning process.
Highlights
Energy is essential at all levels of development, ranging from catering for basic human needs to fuelling modern society needs (AGECC, 2010)
Approximately 370 MWh of electricity are used each year at the production facility
Most of the electricity is used for the mechanical treatment of the sisal product, and approximately 2% of the total yearly electricity demand is associated with the residential demand of the workers living on-site (Figure 3)
Summary
Energy is essential at all levels of development, ranging from catering for basic human needs to fuelling modern society needs (AGECC, 2010). Access to energy for consumption uses, residential energy access for instance, is one of the necessary conditions for improving living standards. Productive uses of energy have a potentially higher transformative impact on countries’ socio-economic development (ESMAP, 2008) (Brew-Hammond, 2010). The reasons why the productive use of energy is a major driver of countries’ structural transformation are twofold (UNDP, 2010; UNIDO, 2011; Andreoni and Chang, 2015). In developing countries, powering production activities is a pre-condition for increasing productivity and adopting better production technologies ( (Kay, 2009) (Andreoni, 2011) (Alston & Pardey, 2014)). Some 2.5 billion people, 45% of the developing world population, live in households depending primarily on agriculture and in agri-based economy for their livehoods (Practical Action, 2014). It is estimated that by 2050 a 70 percent increase in current food production will be necessary to meet the expanding demand for food, primarily through yield increases (FAO, 2011)
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