Biofuel Cropping Systems
Choosing appropriate practices and policies for biofuel production requires an
understanding of how soils, climate, farm types, infrastructure, markets and social
organisation affect the establishment and performance of these crops. The book highlights
land use dynamics, cultivation practices related to conversion and wider impacts. It
explores how biofuel production chain development is steered by emerging technologies and
management practices and how both can be influenced by effective policies designed to
encourage sustainable biofuel production. The book highlights major biofuel production
chains including: cane cultivation in Brazil corn ethanol in the USA wheat and rapeseed in
Europe oil palm in the Far East cane in Asia and Africa SRC and other lignocellulosic
crops. In each case the development, cropping systems and impacts are discussed, system
dynamics are shown and lessons drawn for the way things could or should change. Biofuel
Cropping Systems is a vital resource for all those who want to understand the way
biofuels are produced and how they impact other elements of society and especially how
improvements can be made. It is a handbook for students, biofuel producers, researchers
and policymakers in energy and agriculture.
'The book Biofuel Cropping Systems is a much welcome contribution to
the growing list of publications about biofuels. What places this book apart from many
other publications is the special attention to feedstock production systems, where solid
on-the-ground knowledge is combined with a forward-looking view on how challenges can be
met and good performing biofuel cropping systems be developed for the future. I warmly
recommend this book as a vital source of information for students as well as for
researchers, biofuel producers and policy makers.' - Goran Berndes, PhD, Associate
Professor, Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Part 1: Biofuels, Land and Carbon: An Introduction 1. General Introduction: Biofuels
and their Role in Cropping Systems 2. Land Cover and Land Use 3.Input Use and Crop
Production 4. Assesing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 5. Land Rights, Legal Issues and Social
Impacts of Biomass Production
Part 2: Biofuels in Practice: Crop Production Systems Around the Globe 6. Biofuel
Production in Brazil 7. Biofuel Production in the USA 8. Biofuel Production in the EU
9.Sugarbeet Ethanol in the EU 10. Oilpalm diesel in the Far East 11. Biofuel Production in
Southern Africa 12. Biofuel Production in China 13.Lignocellulosic Crops 14. Biomass
production from Waste Agricultural Biomass 15.Impact on Land and Biomass Availability 16:
Outlook
296 pages, Hardcover