Costs of supply chains of Miscanthus giganteus

Abstract

Miscanthus is a perennial C 4-grass of East Asian origin that can have a future as an agricultural crop, producing raw material for energy, building materials and geotextiles. The costs of plant establishment, production, harvest, storage and transport have been investigated as components in various chains of primary production of miscanthus to compare those chains and to calculate the price for which the processing industry could buy the crop if it would be introduced in the north-east provinces of the Netherlands. All parameters concerning contractor costs, transport distances, crop rotation and best farming practice have been chosen according to the up-to-date situation of this area. Three possible scenarios were investigated on the basis of farm labour input and the use of the margin in the cost calculation. Costs for eight different chains were compared from soil preparation until transport to the processing plant. Planting was evaluated with plantlets and rhizomes. For harvesting, existing choppers and balers were chosen, in addition to prototypes for a compact roller and whole stem harvester. To reduce transport cost of chopped material, an adapted recycling paper compacting machine was included in the calculations. With regard to transport, different systems were analysed and some calculation on costs, correlated to transport distances, were carried out. Drying costs are not included in the calculations since they depend too much on the variable weather conditions. It was concluded that costs of chopped and baled products do not differ much for the farmers scenario. Chopped product is cheapest when production is performed by the Miscanthus company. Costs then are 126 ECU/ton. Storage and transport costs are lowest when density of the product is high, so compact rolled and compacted materials are cheapest for larger transport distances. The whole stem harvester should have a higher capacity than assumed to further decrease costs. This harvest method however also offers a long harvest period without drying costs.