Energies (Aug 2019)
Marginal Agricultural Land Low-Input Systems for Biomass Production
- Moritz Von Cossel,
- Iris Lewandowski,
- Berien Elbersen,
- Igor Staritsky,
- Michiel Van Eupen,
- Yasir Iqbal,
- Stefan Mantel,
- Danilo Scordia,
- Giorgio Testa,
- Salvatore Luciano Cosentino,
- Oksana Maliarenko,
- Ioannis Eleftheriadis,
- Federica Zanetti,
- Andrea Monti,
- Dagnija Lazdina,
- Santa Neimane,
- Isabelle Lamy,
- Lisa Ciadamidaro,
- Marina Sanz,
- Juan Esteban Carrasco,
- Pilar Ciria,
- Ian McCallum,
- Luisa M. Trindade,
- Eibertus N. Van Loo,
- Wolter Elbersen,
- Ana Luisa Fernando,
- Eleni G. Papazoglou,
- Efthymia Alexopoulou
Affiliations
- Moritz Von Cossel
- Biobased Products and Energy Crops, Institute of Crop Science, University of Hohenheim, Fruwirthstr. 23, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
- Iris Lewandowski
- Biobased Products and Energy Crops, Institute of Crop Science, University of Hohenheim, Fruwirthstr. 23, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany
- Berien Elbersen
- Team Earth Informatics, Wageningen Environmental Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Igor Staritsky
- Team Earth Informatics, Wageningen Environmental Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Michiel Van Eupen
- Team Earth Informatics, Wageningen Environmental Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Yasir Iqbal
- College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, Hunan, China
- Stefan Mantel
- International Soil Reference and Information Centre, P.O. Box 353, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Danilo Scordia
- Alimentazione e Ambiente, Di3A—Dipartimento di Agricoltura, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
- Giorgio Testa
- Alimentazione e Ambiente, Di3A—Dipartimento di Agricoltura, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
- Salvatore Luciano Cosentino
- Alimentazione e Ambiente, Di3A—Dipartimento di Agricoltura, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
- Oksana Maliarenko
- Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet NAAS, 03141 Kyiv, Ukraine
- Ioannis Eleftheriadis
- Center for Renewable Energy Sources, Biomass Department, 19009 Pikermi Attikis, Greece
- Federica Zanetti
- Dept. of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
- Andrea Monti
- Dept. of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
- Dagnija Lazdina
- Latvian State Forest Research Institute SILAVA, 2169 Salaspils, Latvia
- Santa Neimane
- Latvian State Forest Research Institute SILAVA, 2169 Salaspils, Latvia
- Isabelle Lamy
- Environment and Agronomy Division, French National Institute for Agricultural Research, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France
- Lisa Ciadamidaro
- Environment and Agronomy Division, French National Institute for Agricultural Research, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France
- Marina Sanz
- Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-CIEMAT, 28040 Madrid, Spain
- Juan Esteban Carrasco
- Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-CIEMAT, 28040 Madrid, Spain
- Pilar Ciria
- Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-CIEMAT, 28040 Madrid, Spain
- Ian McCallum
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
- Luisa M. Trindade
- Laboratory of Plant Breeding, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 9101, 6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Eibertus N. Van Loo
- Wageningen Plant Research, Plant Breeding, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Wolter Elbersen
- Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Ana Luisa Fernando
- Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
- Eleni G. Papazoglou
- Department of Crop Science, Agricultural University of Athens, 118 55 Athens, Greece
- Efthymia Alexopoulou
- Center for Renewable Energy Sources, Biomass Department, 19009 Pikermi Attikis, Greece
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/en12163123
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 12,
no. 16
p. 3123
Abstract
This study deals with approaches for a social-ecological friendly European bioeconomy based on biomass from industrial crops cultivated on marginal agricultural land. The selected crops to be investigated are: Biomass sorghum, camelina, cardoon, castor, crambe, Ethiopian mustard, giant reed, hemp, lupin, miscanthus, pennycress, poplar, reed canary grass, safflower, Siberian elm, switchgrass, tall wheatgrass, wild sugarcane, and willow. The research question focused on the overall crop growth suitability under low-input management. The study assessed: (i) How the growth suitability of industrial crops can be defined under the given natural constraints of European marginal agricultural lands; and (ii) which agricultural practices are required for marginal agricultural land low-input systems (MALLIS). For the growth-suitability analysis, available thresholds and growth requirements of the selected industrial crops were defined. The marginal agricultural land was categorized according to the agro-ecological zone (AEZ) concept in combination with the marginality constraints, so-called ‘marginal agro-ecological zones’ (M-AEZ). It was found that both large marginal agricultural areas and numerous agricultural practices are available for industrial crop cultivation on European marginal agricultural lands. These results help to further describe the suitability of industrial crops for the development of social-ecologically friendly MALLIS in Europe.
Keywords
- bioeconomy
- bio-based industry
- biomass
- bioenergy
- industrial crop
- perennial crop
- low-input agriculture
- marginal land
- MALLIS
- sustainable agriculture
