• Energy Research
• 2. Zero hunger close
• GB close
• AU close
• PK close
• English close

Meeting the EU renewable fuel targets for 2020 will require a large increase in bioenergy feedstocks. To date, first generation biofuels have been the major response to meeting these targets. However, second generation biofuels from dedicated energy crops (e.g. miscanthus) or crop residues (e.g. straw) offer potential. Based on an on-farm survey of Farm Business Survey arable farmers in England and aggregated to national levels, we estimate that 5.27 Mt of cereal straw is produced annually on these farm types, of which farmers indicated that they would be willing to sell 2.5 Mt for bioenergy purposes, provided appropriate contractual conditions meet their needs. However, only 555Kt-840Kt would be obtained from straw currently incorporated into the soil. Timeliness of crop operations and benefits to soil were cited as key reasons for incorporating straw. A ‘good price’ represents the key incentive to encourage straw baling. With respect to dedicated energy crops, 81.6% (87.7%) would not consider growing miscanthus (SRC), while respectively, 17.2% (11.9%) would consider growing and 1.2% (0.4%) were currently growing these crops. Assuming 9.29% (average percentage of arable land set-aside between 1996-2005) of their utilised agricultural area to these crops, 89,900 ha (50,700 ha) of miscanthus (SRC) would be grown on English arable farms. Land quality issues, profitability and committing land for a long period of time were cited as both negative and positive reasons for farmer decisions about their level of willingness to grow these crops. Food and fuel policies must increasingly be integrated in order to meet societal goals without generating unintended consequences.

Agroecology is receiving increasing attention for its potential to reconcile environmental, sustainability and food production goals, through restoring the health of agricultural ecosystems and increasing the resilience of farms to future challenges. This study examined five different agroecological approaches that are currently practiced in Scotland to determine their potential to support the delivery of policy targets relating to climate change, biodiversity, and food production.

The CRC for Beef Genetic Technologies (the 'Beef CRC') has established the Maternal Efficiency Project to provide new knowledge to help better inform beef producers on the impacts estimated breeding values for carcase fatness/carcase muscularity and for feed efficiency have on maternal efficiency, especially under variable nutritional environments. The project is being conducted across southern Australia. It has an industry herd component and a research station component being run simultaneously. Early results from the research stations show that selection for traits affecting body composition holds across seasons and nutrition treatments, and that genetically leaner cows seem to be less fertile, especially under low nutrition. Results are peer-reviewed and compiled for industry dissemination in the Maternal Journal available through the Beef CRC website (www.beefcrc.com.au). Special Edition Sheep and Cattle Production in New South Wales

This paper first develops a partial equilibrium (PE) model to examine impacts of converting corn stover to biofuel on markets for corn and soybeans at the national market level. The PE model links gasoline, corn ethanol, dried distiller grains, corn, soybeans, and soybean meal markets in the presence and absence of a viable market for corn stover. The model also includes a technology which converts corn stover to bio-gasoline (a drop-in biofuel). The model evaluates profitability of the ethanol and bio-gasoline industries and assumes that these industries will expand/contract until profits reach zero. Given these assumptions and according to the predetermined supply and demand elasticities, the model determines equilibrium prices and their corresponding quantities for given exogenous variables defined in the model (such as crude oil price). The model is calibrated using data obtained for 2010 for USA economy and then solved for alternative crude oil prices in the presence and absence of a fixed subsidy of $1.01per gallon of bio-gasoline produced. Then we used the Purdue Crop Linear Programing (PCLP) model to assess farmers’ reactions to market equilibrium prices for corn, soybeans, and corn stover in the presence of a viable market for corn stover. The PCLP model determines profit-maximizing decisions for a given farm given its existing resources and estimated prices of commodities and input costs. We tuned the PCLP model according to the market clearing prices obtained from the PE model for a case when the crude oil price is $100 per barrel. Then using the tuned PCLP model we determined the optimum land allocation options for farmers. The partial equilibrium analyses show that: 1) with no bio-gasoline subsidy a limited amount of corn stover will be converted to biofuel even at very high crude oil prices; 2) The bio-gasoline subsidy could significantly boost production of this biofuel in particular at medium and higher crude oil prices; 3) no more than 45% of available corn stover will be removed for biofuel production; 4) converting corn stover to bio-gasoline boosts corn production, increases corn-corn rotation, and decreases supply of soybeans; and 5) converting corn stover to bio-gasoline changes the soybean to corn price ratio in favor of soybeans, at least in the very short term. The results obtained from the PCLP model show that the farm level land allocation decision is sensitive to the profitability of corn stover processing activities. When corn stover removal is introduced as a new option under the base case scenario at a corn stover price of $111 per ton) farmers allocate about 66% of their land to the corn-corn rotation and remove stover from their land. In this case corn stover is removed from 78.2% of available land at a rate of 1.18 tons per acre. If corn stover is demanded for biofuel production, then a major shift will be observed in crop rotations.

Climate change is expected to have a significant effect on agricultural production but less is known about its projected impact on the farm business. This paper provides a first attempt at an economic analysis of the impacts of climate change for broadacre farming systems and provides an insight into agricultural production areas in Western Australia at risk over the next 50 years. These risks have been assessed using the Simulated Transitional Economic Planning (STEP) model to investigate the impact on the farm business. Modelled future climate scenarios were incorporated into crop and pasture production models to examine the economic impact on the whole farming system. Uncertainties associated with climate and production projections were captured through the development of scenarios and sensitivity analyses were performed to encompass a range of potential outcomes for the impact of climate change on the farming systems of the northern wheat-belt. Testing of this process showed that the current farming systems of the region may decline in profitability under climate change to a point where some become financially unviable in the long term. This decline in profitability is driven not only by the decline in crop yields from climate change but also from a continuation in the trend of declining terms of trade. With innovation and adaptation it may be possible to overcome these impacts on the region‘s farming systems even under severe (CSIRO Mk2) climate change projections. Potential profitable adaptations under climate change included a combination farming system of trade cattle, opportunistic cropping and carbon sequestration from oil mallee trees in the low rainfall area; investment in technology and genetically modified crops in the medium rainfall area; and in the high rainfall area a combination of increased crop area on the better soil types and the use of perennial pastures on the poor soil types. The findings are dependent on the accuracy and validity of future climate projections, crop yield estimates and the economic conditions used in the STEP model. Use of this process has improved understanding of the potential impacts of climate change and facilitated regional planning, decision making and the setting of research and investment priorities. However, additional fine-tuning of the analysis and further exploration of alternatives is necessary before policy decisions are made on the future of agriculture in Western Australia‘s northern wheatbelt.

This is the shorter PowerPoint version of the final report from the RELB Project. This D10 presentation highlights the findings from the RELB work packages:Review of existing studies – a review of past estimates in the literature of land availability for new perennial energy crops and new Short Rotation Forestry production in the UK and Europe;Desk and Field studies – report of and findings from the validation exercises carried out;Mini case studies – individual reports on the three 50x50 km cells assessed in the field study;Opportunities and barriers – report of desk study undertaken to understand why bioenergy crop production does not currently utilise the ‘available’ land and to identify opportunities to increase planting;Final summary and conclusionsFor the detailed version of this report, thereader should see deliverable D9 which is provided in Microsoft Word format.

{"references": ["1. Afzal, M. 1999. Water for agriculture. Paper for water Vision Pakistan.", "2. Ahmad, S. and Rashida, M. 2001. Indus basin irrigation system water budget and associated problems. J. Engineering and Applied Sciences. 20 (1):69-75.", "3. Bhutta, M.N. 1999. Vision on water for food and agriculture: Pakistan's perspective. Regional South Asia Meeting on Water for Food and Agriculture Development. New Delhi.", "4. Chebbi, E.H. 2010. Agriculture and economic growth in Tunisia: (Vol. 2 no. 1), pp-63-78. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.", "5. Duranton, G. 1998 Agricultural Productivity, Trade, and Industrialization. Oxford Economic Papers 50, 220\u2013236.", "6. Ejaz, N., Hashmi, H. N. & Ghumman, A. R., (2011). Water Quality Assessment of Effluent Receiving Streams in Pakistan: A Case Study of Ravi River, Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering & Technology, Vol. 30, No. 3 July 2011", "7. EPD, Environment Protection Department. (2008). Environmental Monitoring of Ravi River, Study carried out under Annual Development Scheme, Monitoring of Surface Water Bodies in Punjab. November 2008. EPA Laboratories, Environmental Protection Department, Government of the Punjab, National Hockey Stadium, Lahore.", "8. Faiza. M., & Tabsum J. (2009). Temporal Population Growth of Lahore, Journal of Scientific Research, Vol. XXXIX No. I, June 2009 ISSN 0555-7674.", "9. Hassan G. Z., Bhutta M N. 1996. A Water Balance Model to Estimate Groundwater Recharge in Rechna Doab Pakistan. Irrigation and Drainage System 10:297-317, Kluwer Academic Publisher, Printed in Netherlands.", "10. Hassan G.Z., Shabir G., Hassan F. R., Akhtar S. 2013. Impact of Pollution in Ravi River on Groundwater underlying the Lahore City. Paper 749, 72nd Annual Session of Pakistan Engineering Congress, Lahore, Pakistan.", "11. Hassan G.Z., Hassan F. R., Akhtar S. 2014. Environment Threats to Groundwater in Lahore Area. World Environment Day, Pakistan Engineering Congress, Lahore Pakistan.", "12. Hassan G.Z., Hassan F. R., Akhtar S. 2016. Environmental Issues and concerns of Groundwater in Lahore. Proceedings of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences :B: Life and Environmental Science 53(3) 163-178 (2016), ISSN 2518-4261 (print), ISSN 2518-427X (Online)", "13. Hussain. F., Sultan. A., (2013). Existing Situation of Sewerage in Lahore City and its Impact on Ravi River, The Urban Gazette, Lahore, Pakistan.", "14. Irrigation Research Institute (IRI). 2009. Research Studies on Artificial Recharges of Aquifer in Punjab. Government of the Punjab, Irrigation Department, Irrigation Research Institute. Research Report No IRR-Phy/552.", "15. IRI. 2012. Groundwater Investigation for Sustainable Water Supply to FDA City Housing Scheme, Faisalabad. Government of the Punjab, Irrigation Department, Irrigation Research Institute, Lahore, Pakistan. Research Report No IRR-Phy/577.", "16. IRI. 2013. Research Studies on Artificial Recharges of Aquifer in Punjab. Government of the Punjab, Irrigation Department, Irrigation Research Institute, Lahore, Pakistan. Research Report No IRR-Phy/579.", "17. IRI. 2015. Groundwater Behavior in Rechna Doab, Punjab, Pakistan. Groundwater Management Cell, Irrigation Department, Irrigation Research Institute, Lahore, Pakistan. Research Report No IRR-GWMC/101.", "18. IRI. 2016. Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable use of Groundwater in Chaj Doab, Punjab, Pakistan. Groundwater Management Cell, Irrigation Department, Irrigation Research Institute, Lahore, Pakistan. Research Report No IRR-GWMC/102.", "19. Jorgenson, D. 1967 Surplus Agricultural Labor and Development of a Dual Economy. Oxford Economic Papers 19, 288\u2013312.", "20. Kaldor, N. 1978 Further Essays on Economic Theory. In M. Baskin (ed.) Economics and Human Welfare\u2014Essay in Honor of Tibor Scitovsky. New York: Academic Press.", "21. Kinzelbach W, Bauer P, Siegfried T, Brunner P (2003) Sustainable groundwater management\u2014 problems and scientific tools, vol 26, no 4. Institute for Hydromechanics and Water Resources Management, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, pp 279\u2013283", "22. Mahmood. K., Daud. R. A., Tariq.S. Kanwal. S., Ali. R., Ali. H. A and Tahseen. A (2013). Groundwater Levels Susceptibility to Degradation in Lahore Metropolitan. Sci.Int (Lahore),25(1),123-126,2013. ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8", "23. World Bank. 1997. Staff Appraisal Report. Pakistan National Drainage Program. Rural Development Sector Management Unit, South Asia Region.", "24. WWAP (United Nations World Water Assessment Program) 2012. The United Nations World Water Development Report 4: Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk. Paris, UNESCO.http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/water/wwap/wwdr/ wwdr4-2012/"]} Irrigated agriculture plays a vital role in the economy of Pakistan by contributing about 90% of food production, 22% of GDP, employing about 45% of the overall labor force, and generating over 60% of foreign exchange. The role of water resources has become significant which underpins the food security in the country. Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) is the lifeline for the economy of Pakistan and is the major pillar of food security. IBIS is one of the largest irrigation networks in the world and is confronted with multidimensional challenges out of which climate changes have attained paramount importance. The irrigation system was designed on a 67% irrigation system during the 19th century while the current cropping intensity has crossed the limits of 150-160% or even more. Continuous increase in population and consequently more food demands have shifted the pressure on the aquifer underlying the Indus Basin. India, USA & China, and Pakistan has become the 4th largest user of groundwater where about 40% of irrigated food production is dependent on groundwater. In Punjab province, about 1.2 million tubewells are extracting about 40-45 MAF of groundwater annually. Consequently, groundwater management has confronted a multitude of tiny users in Pakistan. Climatic changes have made the availability and reliability of surface water a question mark. Resultantly pressure on groundwater is increasing and water levels are dropping abruptly taking this resource beyond the bounds of rural poor farmers. The intrusion of saline water into the fresh aquifer, secondary salinity, and seawater intrusion are the major threats to groundwater quality. About 3000 piezometers have been installed to monitor groundwater behavior (levels and quality) in the Punjab province. A research study carried out in Lower Bari Doab Canal (LBDC) has indicated that by falling of water table from 40 to 70 ft. the cost of pumping per acre-feet of groundwater has increased by 125%. Similarly, it has been observed that in many urban areas groundwater is depleting at an annual alarming rate of 2.54 ft., (Lahore city) and the water table in sweet water zones in rural areas (Vehari District) has gone beyond 70-90 ft. Human activities like increasing cropping intensities, unplanned over pumpage, lack of awareness/capacity, use of chemicals in agriculture/food production, industrialization, urbanization, solid waste landfills, domestic effluents, lack of legal and regulatory framework, etc. are the major threats to sustainable use of groundwater for food security. Climatic changes are posing severe adverse impacts on the sustainable use of groundwater which is putting food security under threat. Global warming, rising sea levels, glacier melting, unprecedented rainfall, prolonged droughts, and floods are the consequences of changing climate which are affecting directly or indirectly the groundwater resources in the aquifer underlying the Indus Basin.

This handbook has been written as part of the National-Scale Impact Based Forecasting of Flood Risk in Uganda (NIMFRU) project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) under the SHEAR (Science for Humanitarian Emergencies and Resilience) programme. The handbook is intended to be used in the field and provides information and a step-by-step guide to designing and running Farmer Agri-Met Village Advisory Clinics (FAMVACs) together with Listening Groups (LGs) to ensure that they complement one another.

Global change is putting unprecedented pressure on plants to adapt or migrate to avoid extinction. Studying the past responses of plants to environmental change can shed light on the potential evolutionary outcomes and sensitivity of species to future environmental change. These processes are especially relevant to highly diverse, evolutionarily rich, and ecologically vulnerable alpine ecosystems. My PhD aims to narrow the uncertainty about how plant lineages with a range of lowland and alpine species will be impacted by global change by studying the historical biogeography, trait and species diversification, and ecological strategies of alpine species in a phylogenetic framework. Chapter 1 reviews current knowledge about the relative roles of migration and adaptation in plant responses to climate change and how historical biogeographical and evolutionary modeling provide novel insights to these questions. Chapter 2 applies recent developments in sequencing methods to construct a new, near-complete phylogeny of a diverse species radiation, New Zealand Veronica, also addressing questions about how to resolve difficulties in reconstructing phylogenetic relationships in recent, rapid radiations such as Veronica. This group serves as an important case study for further evolutionary questions about the relationships between habitat, species diversity, and environmental change. Chapter 3 estimates the contributions of in situ cladogenesis (i.e., the formation of new species) and colonization from lowland habitat in generating mountain diversity in Veronica. Further, the chapter explores the importance of niche adaptation and divergence in contributing to cladogenesis, and presents a general, conceptual model to understand how mountain diversity accumulates. Chapter 4 compares the potential range and niche change required for plant species to respond to future climate change relative to the change undergone since the mid-Holocene. It also determines which niche traits can predict “winners” and “losers” under climate change. Chapter 5 discusses the main findings of the thesis and ends with proposed avenues for future research.