Preliminary farm-level estimation of 20-year impact of introduction of energy crops in conventional farms in the UK
File(s)
Author(s)
Anejionu, Obinna CD
Woods, Jeremy
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
There is a renewed interest in large-scale production of non-food energy crops in the UK to enable it to meet its renewable energy targets. There are strong indications that with increasing demand for biomass feedstocks, energy crops will be grown in arable farms alongside food crops. This raises environmental, socio-political and economic concerns on the energy-food-environment balance. It also raises a fundamental question on where and how much bioenergy crop could be cultivated in farms without adversely affecting food production and ecosystem services. Therefore, this research sets out to firstly ascertain whether the introduction of bioenergy crops in conventional farms could have beneficial or adverse effects on food production and the environment, and secondly, to explore various strategies through which bioenergy crops could be integrated in farms. Spatially explicit datasets and models were used to investigate the interaction of energy and food crops at the farm level, and associated effects over a 20-year period. Using appropriate biophysical and biomass indicators the impacts of were assessed. This study found that careful integration of Miscanthus in farms is beneficial as it reduces sediment and nutrient loss, and increases biomass yield, without adversely affecting food production. This research is significant as it demonstrates the potential of largescale production of bioenergy crops from fragmented sources. It also presented effective strategies through which bioenergy crops can co-exist with food crops, without leading to the food-energy-environment trilemma.
Date Issued
2019-12
Date Acceptance
2019-09-19
Citation
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2019, 116, pp.1-14
ISSN
1364-0321
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
1
End Page
14
Journal / Book Title
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Volume
116
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136403211930615X?via%3Dihub
Subjects
Energy
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
109407
Date Publish Online
2019-10-09