Economic assessment of measares for sustainable use of biomass.
The pressure on agricultural land exploitation is ever increasing at present, whether for growing of fodder, energy biomass or food production, resulting in conflicts among these differing interests and uses. The problem is further aggravated by the climate change in progress, which manifests itself by more frequent and longer droughts among other things. Support to renewable sources of energy, including biomass, has a substantial influence as well. The project therefore strives to identify suitable methods for optimization of biomass use with respect to economic efficiency, food self-sufficiency (need to grow food and fodder) and consideration of requirements for soil protection, notably limits on soil exploitation and prevention of soil degradation.
The project follows up and expands on the IS RESTEP tool for optimization of biomass use. The principal objective of the follow-up project is to add an ECONOMICS module to the tool, enabling regional sustainable energy planning. It will thus enable economic analysis of not only agricultural biomass production with a focus on both crops and techniques. In addition, it will enable analysis of subsequent energy use. The project will involve an expansion of the information tool with new sources of information for decision making.
Economic analysis involves not only direct costs of and revenues from growing and use of agricultural biomass for energy purposes. The IEEP team will focus in the project on assessment of externalities associated with biomass production. A choice experiment will be made in this connection. The ecosystem service concept will also be applied. The project will involve an interlinking of our team’s activities in the area of air, energy and ecosystem services.
The implementation of the four-year project as part of the sub-programme “Support to innovative agriculture and forestry by means of advanced procedures and techniques” involves 6 national partners; the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague is the consortium leader.
| Funding Agency: | Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, QK – Programe of Applied Research of Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic for the perion 2017–2025 EARTH |
| Duration: | 2/2017–12/2020 |
| Contact Person: | Jan Macháč, e-mail: machac@e-academia.eu |
| Researchers: | Ing. Jan Macháč; Ing. Lenka Dubová; Ing. Lenka Zemková |
| In Cooperation with: | Czech University of Life Science Prague Czech Technology Platform for the Use of Biocomponents in Transport and Chemical Industry ECO trend s. r. o. Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation |