Ford, J.S. orcid.org/0000-0002-6546-0564, Bale, C.S.E. orcid.org/0000-0002-2413-0673 and Taylor, P.G. orcid.org/0000-0001-7456-3744 (2024) The factors determining uptake of energy crop cultivation and woodland creation in England: Insights from farmers and landowners. Biomass and Bioenergy, 180. 107021. ISSN 0961-9534
Abstract
Perennial energy crops (PECs) and trees have key roles to play in delivering the negative emissions needed for the UK to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Significant changes to land use are needed and the decision to make changes will lie with individual landowners. Using in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this research explores the attitudes of farmers and landowners in England to replacing traditional arable and livestock farming with growing annual or perennial energy crops or planting trees. It was concluded that considerable government policy intervention will be needed to overcome the many economic and social barriers in place including lack of markets and attractive contracts for growers, high establishment costs, loss of annual income, high prices available for cereal crops and the cultural division between farming and forestry. Although energy crops and woodland creation are generally researched and regulated separately, this research suggests that annual energy crops, PECs and woodland creation form a spectrum of land use options for a landowner, with the propensity to adopt these crops being determined predominantly by crop attributes including the risk of planting and the term of commitment.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Willow; Miscanthus; Biomass; Land use change; Decision-making |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 08 Jan 2024 11:06 |
Last Modified: | 08 Jan 2024 11:06 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2023.107021 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.biombioe.2023.107021 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:206963 |