Terrestrial Biomass

Since long, terrestrial biomass has been used to fulfill the need of food, feed, vegetables, fiber, furniture and cooking purpose as well. Traditionally the need of fire/fuel was fulfilled by trees, remains of agricultural crops, and fossil fuels (coal, and petroleum). During the course of time, we totally became dependent on conventional energy sources of fossil fuel arid electricity. But gradually increasing world wide human population and diminishing stock of fossil fuel have challenged us to seek out the alternative sources of energy.

Swaminathan (1980) has emphasized for “photosynthetic model of development”. This model is applicable for India and other developing countries. However, the extent and nature of this model may vary with energy demand of that country.