Leapfrogging Possibilities For Sustainable Consumption and ...

Part of the explanation for low agricultural productivity in Africa is the depletion of soil
nutrients as well as lack of access to modern energy such as petroleum fuels that can be
used to increase the productivity of the agricultural sector.
2.3.1.2 Energy supply
Africa is the least illuminated continent as figuratively shown in the famous “the earth in
the night” picture taken from space. Africa consumes only 5.5% of the world energy
despite its share of 13 % of the world's total population 6 . Access to modern energy such
as electricity is still very low by any standard despite the high potential hydropower, solar
and wind power in most of the countries in the continent. The per capita energy
consumption of 5.82 MWh is far lower than the world average of 14 MWh per capita 7 .
The issue is both access and quality of even the existing energy sources. A significant
part of Africa is still using biomass, albeit through a traditional way, as a major source of
energy for cooking and heating in the rural parts of Africa.
Energy consumption in Africa is largely dominated by combustible renewable resources
(biomass, animal wastes, municipal and industrial wastes) with 47% of total (Figure 4).
Biomass accounts for more than 80% in some countries such as Burundi (91%), Rwanda
and Central Africa Republic (90%), Mozambique (89%), Burkina Faso (87%), Benin (86
%), Madagascar and Niger (85 %) 8 .
Figure 4: Primary Energy Supply by Fuel in Africa in 2002 (Total 539.85
MTOE)9
The energy use in Africa’s agriculture in 1990 and projected for 2010 is depicted in Table
2 for three scenarios namely reference of business as usual, moderate improvement and
accelerated growth.
6 UNECA (2006)
7 ibid
8 ibid
9 UNECA(2006)
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