Factors affecting the economic benefits of sprinkler uniformity and their implications for irrigation water use

Adoption of more uniform sprinkler systems involves a trade off between increased capital expenditure on equipment and the benefits associated with reduced water application when application is uniform. An empirical analysis of the economics of lettuce production, grown using sprinkler systems under the windy conditions of the Swan Coastal plain in Western Australia is presented, where the yield response to water exhibits eventual declining marginal productivity. A range of sprinkler designs that have been field-tested for performance were examined. The optimal per-crop water application for the least efficient system was up to double the application rate of the most efficient system. However, the economic analysis demonstrates that there are clear incentives for adopting more water-efficient systems despite the higher capital cost, because of the yield depressing effect of over-watering. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates substantially poorer incentives for improving irrigation efficiency when yield relationships follow a Mitscherlich functional form.

Water use efficiency and economic feasibility of growing rice and wheat with sprinkler irrigation in the Indus Basin of Pakistan

With a population of more than 150 million, Pakistan cannot meet its need for food, if adequate water is not available for crop production. Per capita water availability has decreased from 5600 m³ in 1947 to 1000 m³ in 2004. Water table has gone down by more than 7 m in most parts of the country. Present need is to identify and adopt measures, that will reduce water use and increase crop production. This study was conducted in farmers’ fields during 2002–2004 to evaluate the water use efficiency and economic viability of sprinkler irrigation system for growing rice and wheat crops. Yields and water use were also measured on adjacent fields irrigated by basin flooding, which were planted with the same crop varieties. Sprinkler irrigation of rice produced 18% more yield, while reducing consumption of water to 35% of that used in the traditional irrigation system. Sprinkler irrigation of wheat resulted in a water use efficiency of 5.21 kg of grain per cubic meter of water used compared to 1.38 kg/m³ in the adjacent flooded basins. Benefit–cost analysis showed that adoption of rain-gun sprinkler irrigation for rice and wheat is a financially viable option for farmers. While these findings show large potentials for improving water use efficiency in crop production they also indicate that a large portion of the water applied in traditional flooded basin irrigation is going to groundwater recharge, which has high value near large cities which draw their water from the aquifer.     

Irrigation with saline water: benefits and environmental impact

The shortage of water resources of good quality is becoming an important issue in the arid and semi-arid zones. For this reason the availability of water resources of marginal quality such as drainage water, saline groundwater and treated wastewater has become an important consideration. Nevertheless, the use of these waters in irrigated lands requires the control of soil salinity by means of leaching and drainage of excess water and salt. However, the leaching of salts, soil microelements and agro-chemicals can lower the quality of the drainage water in the irrigation scheme. The irrigation return flows with water or poor quality are a source of pollution of the surface water bodies situated downstream of the drainage outlet. Deep percolation could also contaminate the groundwater. Therefore, irrigation with saline water requires a comprehensive analysis even beyond the area where water is applied. The problem should be treated beyond the scope of the irrigation scheme, taking into consideration the groundwater and downstream surface water resources of the river basin. Consequently, the sustainable use of saline water in irrigated agriculture requires the control of soil salinity at the field level, a decrease in the amount of drainage water, and the disposal of the irrigation return flows in such a way that minimizes the side effects on the quality of downstream water resources. This paper describes the guidelines for a preliminary evaluation of the suitability of water for irrigation and the key factors for salinity control in lands irrigated with saline water. Options to improve the quality of the drainage water, strategies for the reuse of this water and alternatives for disposal of the outflow are also analysed. The final goal is to obtain sustainable agriculture and maintain the quality of the water resources in the river basin.     

Environmental and economic impacts of reducing total phosphorous runoff in an agricultural watershed

The economy of northwest Arkansas relies greatly upon livestock and poultry production. The supply of production by-products is increasingly coming under scrutiny as an important source of water pollution in the region. This study uses stochastic dominance techniques to evaluate, environmentally and economically, a range of ten best management practice scenarios to lessen water pollution in the Lincoln Lake watershed. The goal is to generate rankings that could be useful for supporting producers’ and watershed managers’ selection of management practices to reduce total phosphorous losses in runoff. Specifically, this study compares scenarios in terms of net return risk reduction for bermudagrass hay producers.The results showed that environmental and economic rankings differ from each other. Although all scenarios analyzed were effective in reducing total phosphorous losses when compared to a baseline, six of them also decreased net returns. This suggests that including some best management practices may lead to increased net return risk. However, some scenarios were identified that may increase net returns, reduce total phosphorous losses and do not differ considerably from producers’ current management practices.The previous results suggested that the joint environmental-economic impact was important when considering scenarios and that producers’ risk attitudes and best management practices’ economic impacts should be accounted for when selecting scenarios. Producers and watershed managers can weigh trade-offs between total phosphorous losses reduction and net returns variability when making water conservation decisions.     

Agricultural and environmental changes after irrigation management transfer in the Develi Basin,Turkey

Develi Basin is a semi-arid basin in central Turkey where water sustains both irrigated agriculture and an internationally important wetland, the Sultan Marshes. Agricultural and environmental changes in the Develi Basin have occurred since irrigation management was transferred in 1994 from a state authority (DSI) to irrigation associations (Kovalı and Ağcaaşar IAs). In this paper we evaluate the practices of the IAs using extensive data from interviews with farmers and IA officials, as well as data from reports prepared by DSI and the IAs, using comparisons with case studies reported in the scientific literature. Irrigated areas and surface water use in the Develi Basin showed significant fluctuations from 1995 to 2003. The area allocated to high water-consuming plants increased. Maintenance activities became dependent on fee collection rates. Quality of the irrigation water did not changed significantly. Ground-water levels, flow rates from springs, and water levels in the Sultan Marshes all dropped. Overall analyses indicate that the water requirements of the Sultan Marshes have not been met, while water use for irrigation has been effective but not efficient. To reconcile agricultural and wetland water requirements, a basin-wide approach in water planning is recommended. Amounts of water to be allocated to the IAs and wetlands need to be clearly defined. DSI has to monitor canal maintenance by the IAs more closely, and IAs need to be given more responsibilities for future rehabilitation of the canals. Realistic water pricing, increased reliability of irrigation scheduling, higher on-farm irrigation efficiency, and in the long-term, modernization of the irrigation system need to be considered.     

The potential contribution of forage shrubs to economic returns and environmental management in Australian dryland agricultural systems

In face of climate change and other environmental challenges, one strategy for incremental improvement within existing farming systems is the inclusion of perennial forage shrubs. In Australian agricultural systems, this has the potential to deliver multiple benefits: increased whole-farm profitability and improved natural resource management. The profitability of shrubs was investigated using Model of an Integrated Dryland Agricultural System (MIDAS), a bio-economic model of a mixed crop/livestock farming system. The modelling indicated that including forage shrubs had the potential to increase farm profitability by an average of 24% for an optimal 10% of farm area used for shrubs under standard assumptions. The impact of shrubs on whole-farm profit accrues primarily through the provision of a predictable supply of ‘out-of-season’ feed, thereby reducing supplementary feed costs, and through deferment of use of other feed sources on the farm, allowing a higher stocking rate and improved animal production. The benefits for natural resource management and the environment include improved water use through summer-active, deep-rooted plants, and carbon storage. Forage shrubs also allow for the productive use of marginal soils. Finally, we discuss other, less obvious, benefits of shrubs such as potential benefits on livestock health. The principles revealed by the MIDAS modelling have wide application beyond the region, although these need to be adapted on farm and widely disseminated before potential contribution to Australian agriculture can be realized.     

The ionic composition of the streams of the mid-Murrumbidgee River: Implications for the management of downstream salinity

The Murrumbidgee River catchment is a major region of both dryland and irrigated agricultural production in eastern Australia. The salinity of water in the lower reaches of the river is the subject of concern; changing land management upstream is one option to minimise accessions of salt to the river but this must be done in a way that provides an adequate quantity of water for downstream users and the environment.

We examined 30 years of sporadic data on the ionic composition of water for 7 subcatchments contributing to the mid-Murrumbidgee River and for 2 gauging stations on the river itself. Despite the common local presumption that salinity, measured as electrical conductivity (EC), is primarily due to NaCl from cyclic marine salt, we found that NaCl was the dominant salt in only some streams. The presence of HCO₃⁻'s of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in all streams, and their dominance in 2 streams, indicates that mineral weathering is also a major contributor to the salt load of water in the catchment. However, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ bicarbonates have limited solubility and so their concentrations will not become a cause of osmotic stress when the water is used for drinking or irrigation. Therefore, in our efforts to prioritise lower order catchments of the Murrumbidgee River for changed land management, it will be necessary to examine the nature of the salts they discharge, not just EC. By distinguishing between Cl⁻/Na⁺ dominated streams and Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺/HCO₃⁻ dominated streams we can refine our search for sources of osmotic stress which might potentially worsen with time. This will enable us to target particular land management units so as to obtain the maximum reduction in downstream salinity with a minimal decrease in flow volume and minimal area of land undergoing changed landuse.     

A GIS-based susceptibility indexing method for irrigation and drinking water management planning: Application to Chebba-Mellouleche Aquifer, Tunisia

Locating high quality groundwater resources in semi-arid regions with growing population and agricultural development is an expensive undertaking. Simple susceptibility indexing method, based on vulnerability and quality index, can be used to facilitate this application. The GIS technique provides an efficient environment to reach this objective. The contamination susceptibility index was calculated by taking the product of the vulnerability index (VI) and the quality index (QI). The VI index was calculated using DRASTIC method to evaluate the hydrogeological characteristics of the Aquifer. The quality index calculation procedure, based on the water classification, was introduced to evaluate hydrochemical data. The susceptibility indexing method was applied in the Chebba-Mellouleche Aquifer, located in Eastern Tunisia. The results show a clear degradation of the water quality throughout the Aquifer. In addition, the susceptibility indexing map which incorporates hydrogeological and hydrochemical datasets reveals a similarity with areas of high anthropogenic activities. Thus, it is more realistic to estimate the groundwater contamination. The main aim of this study is to give an overview of the drinking and irrigation water quality in relation to the hydrogeological characteristics of the Chebba-Mellouleche Aquifer. This overview can form the basis for further investigations.     

Information technology and innovative drainage management practices for selenium load reduction from irrigated agriculture to provide stakeholder assurances and meet contaminant mass loading policy objectives

Many perceive the implementation of environmental regulatory policy, especially concerning non-point source pollution from irrigated agriculture, as being less efficient in the United States than in many other countries. This is partly a result of the stakeholder involvement process but is also a reflection of the inability to make effective use of Environmental Decision Support Systems (EDSS) to facilitate technical information exchange with stakeholders and to provide a forum for innovative ideas for controlling non-point source pollutant loading. This paper describes one of the success stories where a standardized Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methodology was modified to better suit regulation of a trace element in agricultural subsurface drainage and information technology was developed to help guide stakeholders, provide assurances to the public and encourage innovation while improving compliance with State water quality objectives. The geographic focus of the paper is the western San Joaquin Valley where, in 1985, evapo-concentration of selenium in agricultural subsurface drainage water, diverted into large ponds within a federal wildlife refuge, caused teratogenecity in waterfowl embryos and in other sensitive wildlife species. The fallout from this environmental disaster was a concerted attempt by State and Federal water agencies to regulate non-point source loads of the trace element selenium. The complexity of selenium hydrogeochemistry, the difficulty and expense of selenium concentration monitoring and political discord between agricultural and environmental interests created challenges to the regulation process. Innovative policy and institutional constructs, supported by environmental monitoring and the web-based data management and dissemination systems, provided essential decision support, created opportunities for adaptive management and ultimately contributed to project success. The paper provides a retrospective on the contentious planning process and offers suggestions as to how the technical and institutional issues could have been resolved faster through early adoption of some of the core principles of sound EDSS design.     

不同品种鲜食核桃冷藏期间呼吸强度及品质变化

为探讨鲜食核桃冷藏期间品质变化规律,在(0±1)℃、相对湿度(RH)70%～80%的贮藏条件下,以辽河4号（L4）、西扶1号（X1）和西扶2 号（X2）核桃品种为试材,采用0.03 mm 厚聚乙烯（PE）袋包装,定期对其相关指标进行测定。结果显示,贮藏初期（15 d）呼吸强度迅速下降,之后维持在低且平稳的水平;3个品种之间水分、脂肪、蛋白质及氨基酸含量均呈现极显著差异;贮藏期间蛋白质含量变化不显著;脂肪、不饱和脂肪酸含量及维生素E含量总体呈现下降趋势;氨基酸含量30 d 时最高,之后保持下降趋势;酸价及过氧化值呈现上升趋势;贮藏中后期（60 d后）酸价、过氧化值、好果率及感官品质急剧下降。结果表明：鲜食核桃贮藏品质受品种影响很大,60 d 为鲜食核桃适宜贮藏期,以L4品质最好。     

Policies to support economic and environmental goals at farm and regional scales: Outcomes for rice farmers in Southern India depend on their resource endowment

Improving water use and nitrogen efficiencies is of overall importance to society at large - to conserve scarce water resources and prevent environmental pollution. Efficient cultivation practices for rice which had no yield penalty were not adopted by farmers because of the open access to water free of charge. Well-chosen combinations of policy measures are thus needed to stimulate adoption of new cultivation practices. We developed a multi-objective linear programming (MGLP) model to explore the impact of: (i) modified rice cultivation including water-saving irrigation on farm profit; (ii) water pricing and water quota government policies on adoption of modified rice cultivation by farmers; (iii) a combination of (i) and (ii) to achieve the objectives of both farmers and society at large, and (iv) to study the trade-offs between income, water and nitrogen use. The analysis was carried out on four rice-based farm types for the state of Tamil Nadu, South India. Model results showed that observed farm profit of all four farm types could be increased using current practices simply by optimizing land use for specific crops. Adoption of modified rice cultivation further increased farm profit. Water-saving practices were selected only when water pricing was introduced. Farm profits were reduced even at low water prices but were compensated by farmers through adoption of modified rice cultivation. The combination of policies that stimulate adoption of modified rice cultivation was effective in achieving both increased farm income and water savings. The required water prices differed across farm types and seasons and impacted poor resource-endowed farmers the most. Providing water quotas could protect the poor resource-endowed farmers. The model helped to identify the optimal water price and water quota for each farm type to achieve both the objectives of farmers and society at large. Opportunities for reducing water use and avoiding environmental pollution at acceptable profits are available for all farm types, but need to be tailored to the farmers’ resource endowments.     

Using economic incentives and regulations to reduce seawater intrusion in the Batinah coastal area of Oman

Excessive groundwater abstraction is a major problem in Oman, primarily in the Batinah coastal area where it results in seawater intrusion. The Government began to address the problem in the 1990s by encouraging the use of more efficient irrigation systems, replacing date palms with winter vegetable crops and using treated wastewater for municipal irrigation. However, 15 years later, seawater intrusion in the Batinah aquifers is still advancing at an alarming pace. This paper analyses the relative merits of strategies to control groundwater pumping based on water quotas, electricity quotas and electricity pricing. A cost benefit approach is used to evaluate the feasibility of three strategies over a period of 25 years and to compare them to the “business as usual” option. Results show that the net present loss to the community when no active policy is implemented amounts to (−$288) million. Imposing water quotas on tubewells would give a net present benefit of $153 million. However, such quotas would give the lowest present benefit and create inequity among farmers. Other possible approaches would be to control the pumping of groundwater from all wells - tubewells and dug wells - by enforcing energy quotas and by increasing the price of electricity used to pump water. The net present benefits would be greater and the costs to farmers would be more fairly spread. The results of cost-benefit analysis show that enforcing an electricity quota, coupled with removal of the subsidy on the electricity price, is the easiest and most equitable solution to implement.     

The adoption of improved irrigation technology and management practices—A study of two irrigation districts in Alberta, Canada

Irrigation is by far the largest consumer of water in Alberta. The government is therefore dependent on this sector to achieve water savings for reallocating water to other sectors. Hence, a major objective of a recent government strategy is to see an increase in water efficiency and productivity of 30%. A survey of two irrigation districts was undertaken to determine the measures irrigators have taken and plan to take in the future to improve irrigation technologies and management practices to enhance water use efficiency and which factors facilitate or impede the adoption of such measures. As anticipated, the adoption rate varied between the two districts as a result of differences in production characteristics. The major drivers of adoption were to ensure security of water supply during drought, to increase quantity and quality of crops, and to save cost, while the major impediments were financial constraints and physical farm conditions. It seems that most feasible technological improvements have been implemented and considerable financial improvements or subsidies will be necessary to encourage a significant increase in adoption. There seems to be considerable scope for improvement through the adoption of better management practices. Considering that farmers in the two irrigation districts also have modest plans to adopt improved management practices, promotion and education campaigns that encourage new practices that involve minimal cash outlays might yield the greatest water savings in the future.     

Participatory evaluation of integrated pest and soil fertility management options using ordered categorical data analysis

Maize is becoming the major food crop around Lake Victoria. Major constraints to its production are Striga, stem borer, and declining soil fertility. Innovative integrated technologies have been developed: the ‘push-pull’ system (intercropping with Desmodium and surrounded by Napier grass), soybean and Crotalaria rotations, and imidazolinone-resistant (IR) maize seed.In 12 demonstration trials in four villages in Siaya and Vihiga districts (Kenya) and two villages in Busia (Uganda) in 2003 and 2004, 504 farmers evaluated all cropping systems and a mono-cropped continuous maize, each cropped with IR or local maize, and supplemented or not with fertilizer, totaling 16 treatments. Farmers evaluated all treatments for yield, resistance to Striga and stem borer, improvement of soil fertility, and provided an overall evaluation score, using an ordered scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good). Data were analyzed using ordinal regression, estimating log odds ratios.The results show significant preferences for all treatments over the control. Push-pull with IR and fertilizer had the highest log odds ratio (2.93), so the odds of farmers preferring this treatment are 18.7 times the odds that farmers prefer the control. The odds ratios for the other push-pull combinations were generally highest (9-15), followed by the rotation systems with Crotalaria (3.5-7.0), and soybeans, especially with IR maize and fertilizer (odds ratio of 5.7). In mono-cropping systems, IR maize was only appreciated in combination with fertilizer, and then only in 2004. Push-pull and Crotalaria were more appreciated in 2004 than in 2003. Farmers in Vihiga had a stronger preference for push-pull, and those in Busia for soybean rotations.Significant differences among farmers were observed, but the effects were small. Women appreciated push-pull more than men, while other technologies were gender-neutral. Older farmers were more likely to prefer push-pull and Crotalaria with fertilizer. Livestock ownership was not found to have an effect on technology preferences. Measured yield, stem borer and Striga infestation all had significant but small effects, although their inclusion did not eliminate the treatment effects, indicating that other factors are still important. OLS of the scores for different criteria on the overall score shows yield to be the most important criterion (coefficient of 0.40), followed by soil fertility enhancement (0.25) and Striga resistance (0.13). Labor saving (0.09) and stem borer resistance (0.03) are relatively minor criteria.This research shows that scoring and analysis with ordinal regression is a convenient way to solicit and analyze farmers’ preferences for new technologies, with wide applicability in farming systems and participatory research. Its application here shows that farmers like the new technologies, especially push-pull, but that there are substantial differences between years, sites and farmers. The use of this method can be very helpful to define and focus further research and formulate specific and targeted recommendations for agricultural extension.     

Farm types for beef production and their economic success in a mountainous province of northern Vietnam

The objective of this study was to compare the management and economic success of beef production by three types of farm in northwestern Vietnam. The potential of household farms to supply beef for the market and their competition with large farms were examined.The fieldwork was done in 2007 on 73 farms consisting of 58 small mixed farms (small farms), 10 medium mixed farms (medium farms) and 5 specialised large-scale beef farms (large farms) in Son La province. The three types of farm differed in ethnicity (Thai, H’mong, and Kinh), remoteness (lowland, highland), production objectives (subsistence, market output), degree of specialization (mixed farm, specialised beef farm) and integration of production (single farmers, cooperative). Data on biological productivity, inputs and outputs, and the social contribution of cattle production were collected by household and key person interviews, participatory rural appraisal tools and cattle body measurements. Economic values were derived by assessment of market or replacement costs. Quantitative data analysis was done with linear models (PROC GLM) in the SAS software (version 9.1).Lowland small farms had higher costs for cattle production than the highland farms (0.8 Mill. VND head⁻¹ year⁻¹ compared with 0.02 Mill. VND head⁻¹ year⁻¹, respectively). The large farms had high production costs, with an average of 2.5-3.6 Mill. VND head⁻¹ year⁻¹. Cattle brought high benefits of non-cash values to the household farms. The total revenue from cattle was in the range 4.5-11.5 Mill. VND head⁻¹ year⁻¹, which depended on the use of non-market functions of cattle on the household farm. The value of net benefit/kg live weight (LW) of lowland small farms with an average of 39,000 VND/kg LW was significantly higher than that of the medium and small farms in the highlands (26,000 VND/kg LW). However, the small farms kept fewer cattle than the medium farms (average of 2-4 cattle/farm compared with 9 cattle/farm, respectively) because of forage and labour shortages and have no option to further develop cattle production. Keeping larger numbers of cattle based on available natural pasture brought high benefit from stock value as farm liquidity to only the medium farms. This was the most promising type of farm for future development of beef production, given its actual success and the availability of underutilised resources. Large-scale farms suffered high economic losses of 0.3-1.4 Mill. VND cattle⁻¹ year⁻¹, due to the lack of professional management, high feed costs and low animal performance, and showed no potential for developing cattle production.     

加强地方债务管理，助推农村经济发展

苍溪县高度重视地方政府性债务管理工作．正确处理发展速度与财力可能、债务规模与偿债能力之间的关系,进一步理顺债务管理体制,健全债务管理制度和措施,逐步建立起债务管理新机制,债务管理工作逐步走上了规范化道路。关键词：地方债务;管理机制;农村经济发展     

An agronomic, economic and behavioral analysis of N application to cotton and wheat in post-Soviet Uzbekistan

Cotton and winter wheat play a vital role in Uzbek agriculture: the first crop is a vital component of the national export revenues, while the latter is key in achieving independence from grain imports. Due to these strategic roles in the national economy, both crops are part of the state procurement system and, hence, are subject to strict regulations imposed to ensure budget revenues and self-sufficiency. However, many factors cause the divergence of crop yields from their technically maximum levels. We analyzed those factors, which hamper achieving the optimum response to fertilizer applications. In a stepwise procedure, we (i) reviewed the technical and financial optimum yield responses of cotton and winter wheat production to fertilizer applications and (ii) analyzed the changes of fertilizer-to-product price ratios to shed light on the agronomic and economic performance of cotton and wheat in the post-Soviet agricultural system of Uzbekistan. The analysis combined data from long-term, historical yield and fertilizer responses, agronomic N-fertilizer response experiments, and socio-economic farm surveys. Quadratic yield-response functions were used to derive economic and technical optimum rates of N-fertilizer applications. Based on the parameterized function and fertilizer-to-product price ratios observed for 1996-2003, we analyzed the difference between recommended fertilization and economic optimum application rates. Results showed that under the state procurement system, Uzbek farmers may not necessarily tend to maximize the profits from their cotton and wheat production. The level of subsidies and the differential crop support by the state induce farmers to follow the official fertilizer recommendations to ensure that they fulfill the production targets even if it implies higher production costs. The present gaps between the officially recorded yields and those technically achievable given the agro-ecological conditions in Uzbekistan cannot be narrowed by only improving N-fertilizer management. It would require additional efforts to improve cotton and wheat yields.     

Irrigation modernization and water conservation in Spain: The case of Riegos del Alto Aragón

This study analyzes the effects of irrigation modernization on water conservation, using the Riegos del Alto Aragón (RAA) irrigation project (NE Spain, 123354 ha) as a case study. A conceptual approach, based on water accounting and water productivity, has been used. Traditional surface irrigation systems and modern sprinkler systems currently occupy 73% and 27% of the irrigated area, respectively. Virtually all the irrigated area is devoted to field crops. Nowadays, farmers are investing on irrigation modernization by switching from surface to sprinkler irrigation because of the lack of labour and the reduction of net incomes as a consequence of reduction in European subsidies, among other factors. At the RAA project, modern sprinkler systems present higher crop yields and more intense cropping patterns than traditional surface irrigation systems. Crop evapotranspiration and non-beneficial evapotranspiration (mainly wind drift and evaporation loses, WDEL) per unit area are higher in sprinkler irrigated than in surface irrigated areas. Our results indicate that irrigation modernization will increase water depletion and water use. Farmers will achieve higher productivity and better working conditions. Likewise, the expected decreases in RAA irrigation return flows will lead to improvements in the quality of the receiving water bodies. However, water productivity computed over water depletion will not vary with irrigation modernization due to the typical linear relationship between yield and evapotranspiration and to the effect of WDEL on the regional water balance. Future variations in crop and energy prices might change the conclusions on economic productivity.     

Potential, spatial distribution and economic performance of regional biomass chains: The North of the Netherlands as example

This work assesses the viability of regional biomass chains by comparing the economic performance of potential bioenergy crops with the performance of current agricultural land uses. The biomass chains assessed are ethanol production from Miscanthus and from sugar beet in the North of the Netherlands. The competitiveness of bioenergy crops is assessed by comparing the Net Present Value (NPV) of perennial crops, current rotations, and rotation schemes which include additional years of sugar beet. The current land use and soil suitability for present and bioenergy crops are mapped using a geographical information system (GIS) and the spatial distribution of economic profitability is used to indicate where land use change is most likely to occur. Bioethanol production costs are then compared with petrol costs. The productions costs comprise costs associated with cultivation, harvest, transport and conversion to ethanol. The NPVs and cost of feedstock production are calculated for seven soil suitability classes. The results show that bioenergy crops are not competitive with current cropping systems on soils classed as “suitable”. On less suitable soils, the return on intensively managed crops is low and perennial crops achieve better NPVs than common rotations. Our results showed that minimum feedstock production costs are 5.4 €/GJ for Miscanthus and 9.7 €/GJ for sugar beet depending on soil suitability. Ethanol from Miscanthus (24 €/GJ) is a better option than ethanol from sugar beet (27 €/GJ) in terms of costs. The cost of bioethanol production from domestically cultivated crops is not competitive with petrol (12.34 €/GJ) production under current circumstances. We propose that the method demonstrated in this study, provides a generic approach for identifying viable locations for bioenergy crop production based on soil properties and current land use.