Abstract
This study conducted within the academic Chair called New Energy Strategies" in 2010 and 2011 aims at quantifying the share of crop residues that must be set aside for agricultural needs before assessing the availability of agricultural residues for energy production. In a first section, the uses of crop residue uses are surveyed and characterized in terms of agronomic principles for soil conservation and livestock feeding. This understanding of the agricultural needs for residues leads to differentiate several types of residues and several contexts of agricultural and livestock production. For India, the assessment of agricultural needs for crop residues is done by differentiating four main soil types with their specific needs and by estimating how much and which livestock consumes residues. The needs for soil conservation range from 50 to 100% of residues generated, according to crops. The livestock needs for feed are assessed to 294 million tons per year, that is 51% of the total volume of residues generated by crop cultivation.