Policy implications of competition between conventional and energy crops

Abstract

Energy crops grown on agricultural land compete with conventional crops in terms of access to soil. Failure to respect the price of biomass from energy crops and its competitiveness can lead to a significant overestimation of the potential of biomass. For the analysis of the competitiveness of energy crops, a methodology was created based on respecting specific climatic and soil parameters on individual land plots and their utilization both for conventional and energy crops. The lower limit of the biomass price from the producer's point of view is modelled on the assumption of achieving the same economic effect from conventional and energy crops over the lifetime of energy crop plantations. The methodology applied on the example of Czechia using GIS modelling shows that due to large variability in yields of both energy and conventional crops, there are large differences (up to 2.5 fold) in the profitability (and thus competitiveness of energy biomass) within territories and land zones. The realistic biomass potential is thus not only fundamentally reduced, but also geographically diverged. The modelling results also show the need for a differentiated approach to energy crop support in relation to locality conditions, yields and prices of conventional crops, including subsidies to conventional agriculture.