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Bio-Fuel Crops Research for Energy Security and Rural Development in Developing Countries

BioEnergy Research volume 1, pages 248–258 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Soaring prices of fossil fuels, geo-political issues and environmental pollution associated with fossil fuel use has led to worldwide interest in the production and use of bio-fuels. Both the developed and developing countries have developed a range of policies to encourage production of combustible fuels from plants that triggered public and private investments in bio-fuel crop research and development, and bio-fuels production. In this article, we discuss the potential benefits of bio-fuels in increasing the farmers’ incomes, reducing environment pollution, the crop options and research and development interventions required to generate feedstocks to produce bio-fuels to meet projected demand without compromising food/fodder security in developing countries.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge critical comments on the manuscript received from Dr. Mohan Saxena, Chair of the session on “Energy and agriculture with a special emphasis on bio-fuels” and Visiting Professor, Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, Japan; Michael Blummel, Principal Scientist (Animal Nutrition) at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) located at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India for information on animal feeding experiments and Mr. P Parthasarathy Rao, Principal Scientist (Economics), Global Theme on Institutions, Markets, Policy and Impacts, ICRISAT, Patancheru, India for their suggestions for improvement of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India

    Belum V. S. Reddy, A. Ashok Kumar, S. P. Wani & T. K. Sreedevi

  2. University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK) Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    S. Ramesh

  3. Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT, El Batan, Mexico

    R. Ortiz

  4. Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Cali, Colombia

    H. Ceballos

Authors
  1. Belum V. S. Reddy
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  2. S. Ramesh
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  3. A. Ashok Kumar
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  4. S. P. Wani
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  5. R. Ortiz
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  6. H. Ceballos
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  7. T. K. Sreedevi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Belum V. S. Reddy.

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Reddy, B.V.S., Ramesh, S., Ashok Kumar, A. et al. Bio-Fuel Crops Research for Energy Security and Rural Development in Developing Countries. Bioenerg. Res. 1, 248–258 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-008-9022-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-008-9022-x

Keywords

  • Agriculture research
  • Energy security
  • Bio-fuel
  • Ethanol
  • Bio-diesel

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