The Relationship Between Economically and Environmentally Marginal Land

Concerns have frequently been raised regarding the impact of federally-subsidized crop insurance and agricultural subsidy payments on land allocation and crop mix choices. If the reduction in production risk encourages farmers to plant on economically marginal land, it has often been asserted that this will lead to increases in environmental damage, including increases in soil erosion rates. This paper investigates the "conventional" wisdom that economically marginal land is also environmentally fragile, as defined by higher levels of inherent soil erodibility. We address this issue by looking at the distribution of crop yields for 4 major crops across National Resource Inventory (NRI) erodibility classes and by performing regression analysis. Our results indicate that land with higher levels of soil erodibility exhibit lower mean crop yields, a proxy for economic marginality, which lends support to the conventional wisdom.Environmental Economics and Policy,

PROPOSALS FOR THE EU ON THE 'MID-TERM REVIEW OF CAP OF AGENDA 2000' WITH EMPHASIS ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

How agricultural policies affect the environment is within ecological economics. The EU Commission `Mid-Term Review of CAP of Agenda 2000' of July 2002 proposed to separate production from direct payments, so that farmers would fully compete in the market, without gearing production to the trade-distorting subsidies. The decoupled direct payment to each farm will be conditional upon cross-compliance with the environmental, food safety, animal health and welfare, and occupational safety standards. MTR maintains extra set-aside payment for normal land to avoid overproduction, but no longer for marginal land. This paper suggests not to set aside normal land, because overproduction would be prevented by decoupling; normal land is less environmentally sensitive, and the direct payment would be enough for farmers to keep it in a good agricultural condition; setting-aside normal land would cost money, and make it unavailable for full-time farmers to achieve economies of scale. It recommends to set aside marginal land which is more environmentally sensitive, and the direct payment may not be enough for farmers to keep it in a good agricultural condition. It advises to gradually convert marginal land back to the nature forever, give a conversion payment to its owners to keep it in a good environmental condition, and pursue non-cereal agriculture and off-farm activities. It advocates a tax on those farmers who refuse to keep a good agricultural or environmental condition on the set aside or converted marginal land for maximally two years, and forced land sale afterwards, which would be less harsh than expropriation.Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Evaluating the suitability of marginal land for a perennial energy crop on the Loess Plateau of China

Abstract With a large marginal land area, the Loess Plateau in China holds great potential for biomass production and environmental improvement. Identifying suitable locations for biomass production on marginal land is important for decision‐makers from the viewpoint of land‐use planning. However, there is limited information on the suitability of marginal land within the Loess Plateau for biomass production. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the suitability of the promising perennial energy crop switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) on marginal land across the Loess Plateau. A fuzzy logical model was developed and validated based on field trials on the Loess Plateau and applied to the marginal land of this region, owing to its ability of dealing with the continuous nature of soil, landscape variations, and uncertainties of the input data. This study identified that approximately 12.8–20.8 Mha of the Loess Plateau as available marginal land, of which 2.8–4.7 Mha is theoretically suitable for switchgrass cultivation. These parts of the total marginal land are mainly distributed in northeast and southwest of the Loess Plateau. The potential yield of switchgrass ranges between 44 and 77 Tg. This study showed that switchgrass can grow on a large proportion of the marginal land of the Loess Plateau and therefore offers great potential for biomass provision. The spatial suitability maps produced in this study provide information to farmers and policymakers to enable a more sustainable development of biomass production on the Loess Plateau. In addition, the fuzzy‐theory‐based model developed in this study provided a good framework for evaluating the suitability of marginal land

PEMETAAN LAHAN MARJINAL SEBAGAI POTENSI LAHAN PERKEBUNAN CENGKIH DI KECAMATAN KAKAS, KAKAS BARAT DAN LEMBEAN TIMUR DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN SISTEM INFORMASI GEOGRAFIS

The purpose of the study was to map marginal land to be used as a map of potential clove plantation land in Kakas District, West Kakas District and East Lembean District by using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The research was carried out in 3 sub-districts namely Kakas District, West Kakas District and East Lembean District using satellite imagery, physical observations and by using drones in the field to see areas of marginal land that have the potential to be used as clove plantations. GIS analysis was carried out for 3 months (June – August 2020). The results showed that there is an area of 623,9 hectares that can be used as land for planting cloves in Kakas District, West Kakas District and East Lembean District. With the use of GIS, the community and the government can optimize the marginal land in the 3 sub-districts to be planted so that marginal land can produce

From soil remediation to biofuel. Process simulation of bioethanol production from Arundo donax

A range of energy crops can be grown on marginal land (i.e. land that is not suitable for food crop production or contaminated site) to provide feedstocks for bioenergy, non-food products and biofuels. The food versus fuel debate had a significant negative impact in Europe on first generation biofuels production from food crops (i.e. wheat, rapeseed, etc). A new approach involving the use of marginal land for the production of lignocellulosic species for the production of bioethanol is now pursued in Italy and in many other countries, where the demand for high quality water resources, arable land, food and fossil fuels is rapidly growing. With an emerging “feed versus fuel debate” there is a pressing need to find options for the use of marginal lands and wastewaters or saline ground waters to produce second generation biofuel or bio paper crops. Arundo donax was selected as a potential crop for use in these areas, since it produces more cellulosic biomass and sequesters more contaminants, using less land and pesticides than any other alternative crops reported in the literature. The objective of this paper is to evaluate economically a simplified process for the production of second generation bioethanol from A. donax. Process calculations and economic analyses are performed using the software SuperPro Designer®

Faktor-Faktor Penentu Tingkat Kemampuan Petani dalam Mengelola Lahan Marjinal Kasus di Desa Karangmaja, Kecamatan Karanggayam, Kabupaten Kebumen, Jawa Tengah)

The objectives of the study are: (1) To explore the capability of the farmers to carry out land-use of marginal or dry land; (2) To analyse factors which relate to farmers' capability in managing marginal land. The study was carried out in Karangmaja village, sub District of Karanggayam, the District of Kebumen Central Java. As many 100 farmers were selected by proportion random sampling as respondents. Data were analyzed using Rank Spearman non parametric method. Important results show that the capability of the farmers to manage marginal land is categorized as sedentary. Internal factors such as: motivation and participation of the farmers to joint farmers' group, interaction which information sources and dependency on land have significant correlation to the capability of the farmers to manage marginal land

Non-timber forestry products on marginal lands

Non-timber forestry products on marginal land

Optimal combinable and dedicated energy crop scenarios for marginal land

Modern biomass energy sources account for less than 2% of primary world energy supplies while major economies have enabled legislation that aims to increase bioenergy production. In response to controversies over first generation biofuel, it has been argued that ‘marginal land’ should be used to produce dedicated energy crops (DECs). However, defining marginality of agricultural land is complex, and moreover, DECs would have to out-compete current agricultural production in these areas. Utilising a bio-economic farm-level modelling approach we investigate the impact that crop yield penalties resulting from production in marginal land contexts have on financially optimal farm-level crop plans. Where farm businesses choose to de-invest in own farm machinery, yield reductions of less than 10% for winter wheat result in a financially optimal switch to 100% miscanthus production. By contrast, in the presence of own farm machinery, winter wheat yield penalties of 30% are required before 100% miscanthus production is financially optimal. However, under circumstances where DECs also suffer yield penalties on marginal land, the financially optimal crop mix includes combinable crops. The results demonstrate that the optimal crop mix is dependent upon the relative combinable and DEC yields, together with farm-level decisions towards machinery ownership. The focus of much policy attention relating to production of DECs on ‘marginal land’ is therefore argued to be incomplete. Policies which encourage farmers to de-invest in own farm machinery, or incentivise the purchase of specific DEC machinery, may play an important role in assisting the development of DEC production

Production cost budgets for perennial grass systems

To reach the cellulosic biofuel mandate set for 2022 in the US, perennial grasses, such as Giant Miscanthus and the newly introduced “Liberty” switchgrass, are expected to play a significant role as a promising feedstock for cellulosic ethanol. These grasses can grow well in the many parts of the U.S., especially in areas with ample rainfall. Miscanthus and switchgrass can adapt well to marginal land, which implies significant potential for marginal land currently under crop or forage production, and land currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program to be converted into future commercial-scale biomass production