Energy is required at each step of the food value chain to produce food and to meet the growing demand for food. Agricultural food systems currently rely heavily on fossil fuels to operate. The increasing use of fossil energy in agriculture leads to increasing GHG emissions from the agricultural sector, which in turn impacts agricultural production itself. At the same time, access to modern energy is inadequate in many parts of agri-food chains in developing countries. This course focuses on exploring the changes to improve access to energy, more efficient use of energy, and increased use of renewable energy in agriculture, including sustainable bioenergy from agri-food systems. This can have the dual benefit of providing sustainable energy input to agriculture thereby increasing productivity while limiting contributions to climate change.
Six modules would be taught in this course.