An integrated agroforestry-bioenergy system for enhanced energy and food security in rural sub-Saharan Africa.

ABSTRACT: Most people in rural sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity and rely on traditional, inefficient, and polluting cooking solutions that have adverse impacts on both human health and the environment. Here, we propose a novel integrated agroforestry-bioenergy system that combines sustainable biomass production in sequential agroforestry systems with biomass-based cleaner cooking solutions and rural electricity production in small-scale combined heat and power plants and estimate the biophysical system outcomes. Despite conservative assumptions, we demonstrate that on-farm biomass production can cover the household's fuelwood demand for cooking and still generate a surplus of woody biomass for electricity production via gasification. Agroforestry and biochar soil amendments should incre

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Lopez N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11383902 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature