Introduction and context: global biomass resources - Biomass as Energy Source: Resources, Systems and Applications - page 5

Table 1.3. Distribution of agriculture, arable and forestland on economic categories (World Bank, 2011).

Agricultural Agricultural Arable Land area Cereal Forest

land land land cereal prod production Forest area area as

[1000 km 2 ] [1000 km 2 ] [% of total] [% of total] [1000 ha] [1000 tonne] [% of total]

2008 2008 2008 2008 2009 2010 2010

Low income 5679 37.8 9.3 88349 172000 4155 27.6

Middle income 30498 37.8 10.9 473000 1510000 26420 32.8

High income 12597 37.3 10.9 147000 803000 9629 28.8

World wide 48774 37.7 10.7 708000 2490000 40204 31.1

Table 1.4. Life expectancy and population distribution between different categories of countries.

Life Population Population Population Population Total

expectancy 0-14 y 15-64 y > 65 y growth per population

at birth [% of all] [% of all] [% of all] year [%] [million]

2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010

Low income 57.5 39.4 57.1 3.5 2.16 817

Middle income 68.7 27.3 66.3 6.4 1.11 4920

High income 79.8 17.5 67.1 15.4 0.6 1120

World wide 69.2 27.2 65.3 7.5 1.15 6860

for growing crops and trees this is 15 million km 2 for low income, 80 for middle and 34 for high
income countries. This gives 0.019 km 2 per capita for low income, 0.016 for middle income and
0.031 for high income countries on average. There are obviously differences, but not that big,
between the different economies. Those having the lowest area per capita are actually the middle
income countries, and not the low income.
From Table 1.4 we can also see some of the demography of the populations. Here we can
note that in high income economies, we have more elderly people and fewer younger than in
the middle income economies, and this is actuated even further comparing to the low income
economies. Still the trend is that when the economy improves, fewer children are born and the
demography changes, as seen in the table. If we predict the population development from this
historical experience, we can see that the population will continue to grow especially in Africa
south of the Sahara, and estimates are made that when we have reached 9 billion inhabitants
the population will start to decrease again. In a country like Germany we already have seen the
trend towards reduced population and predictions are made that Germany will decrease by some
10-20% during this century. Short term this may cause problems but long term it should be good,
as the stress on the resources decrease. In sub-Saharan Africa on the other hand the stress on the
environment will increase a lot. The positive fact is still that the productivity there is low and the
potential to increase therefore high, if the political and organizational aspects can be improved.
InTable 1.5 we can see the figures for fertilizer consumption in kg/ha in the different economies
as well as the cereal yield in kg/ha. It is obvious that the yield is significantly lower in low income
countries, but if we compare the amount of fertilizers used, it is still not that big a difference.
Actually, the middle income economies use more fertilizers per hectare than the high income
countries, although the production is lower. This shows that it is not only the amount that matters,
but also how it is administered. With high distribution, the risk for leakage into waters increases as
well as causing secondary problems in estuaries downstream the farmland. As synthetic fertilizers
also consume a lot of energy to produce it is good to administer fertilizers in an adequate way.
One example of this has been at the farm Nibble outside Vasteras in Sweden. By administering
1/3 of the liquid fertilizer going in one direction at the farmland and then back along the same