Miscanthus Establishment and Survival

Rising costs of petroleum fuels and increased awareness of the adverse effects of greenhouse gases have spurred interest in renewable fuels and other ‘green’ products. Recent legislation has set goals of approximately 20 billion gallons of renewable fuel produced from non-corn starch sources by the year 2022. These driving forces have increased interest in dedicated bioenergy crops. Among perennial grasses, which have received an exceptional amount of attention as dedicated energy crops, one stands out: Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus)

Where can switchgrass production be more profitable than corn and soybean? An integrated subfield assessment in Iowa, USA

Perennial bioenergy crops are considered an important feedstock for a growing bioeconomy. However, in the USA, production of biofuel from these dedicated, nonfood crops is lagging behind federal mandates and markets have yet to develop. Most studies on the economic potential of perennial biofuel crops have concluded that even high-yielding bioenergy grasses are unprofitable compared to corn/soybeans, the prevailing crops in the United States Corn Belt. However, they did not account for opportunities precision agriculture presents to integrate perennials into agronomically and economically underperforming parts of corn/soybean fields. Using publicly available subfield data and market projections, we identified an upper bound to the areas in Iowa, United States, where the conversion from corn/soybean cropland to an herbaceous bioenergy crop, switchgrass, could be economically viable under different price, land tenancy, and yield scenarios. Assuming owned land, medium crop prices, and a biomass price of US$55 Mg-1, we showed that 4.3$ 0 ha-1 to 692 ha-1. In the three counties of highest economic opportunity, total annualized producer benefits from converting corn/soybean to switchgrass summed to US$ 2.6 million, 3.4 million, and 7.6 million, respectively. This is the first study to quantify an upper bound to the potential private economic benefits from targeted conversion of unfavorable corn/soybean cropland to switchgrass, leaving arable land already under perennial cover unchanged. Broadly, we conclude that areas with high within-field yield variation provide highest economic opportunities for switchgrass conversion. Our results are relevant for policy design intended to improve the sustainability of agricultural production. While focused on Iowa, this approach is applicable to other intensively farmed regions globally with similar data availability

Optimizing Miscanthus for the Sustainable Bioeconomy:From Genes to Products

In this Research Topic we report advances in fundamental and applied aspects of the perennial C4 bioenergy crop Miscanthus (Miscanthus spp.) and its role in mitigating climate change as part of the bioeconomy. Miscanthus is extremely well suited for bioenergy, biofuel and bioproduct production over a wide geographic area including Europe and North America as well as its native Asia. Miscanthus offers a unique perspective within plant science: the challenge is to domesticate this novel crop for diverse environments and uses while simultaneously developing sustainable value chains to displace fossil fuels and contribute to climate change mitigation. Contributions to this Research Topic were offered from leading Miscanthus researchers from different parts of the world. We accepted 16 articles from 95 authors, which have generated 21,161 views at March 26 2018. Nine of the articles are the output of the European FP7 OPTIMISC project and describe multiple experiments investigating a common set of Miscanthus genotypes in Europe and Asia. These papers are complemented by seven additional articles from global authors, providing a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art of Miscanthus research and application