Barriers and Challenges of biomass crop production

Jeanette Whitaker (UKCEH) discusses the barriers and challenges of biomass crop production at the Biomass Connect Newcastle Demonstration EventTheme 2: Barriers and Challenges of biomass crop productionEconomic barriers – concerns regarding what profit can be made from growing biomass crops. Many of the crops are harvested every 3 years, or even longer with short rotation forestry (SRF), and that is a big shift in cash flow for farmers who are used to having annual returns and also due to the large upfront investment.Do people prefer to grow food and plant trees? (concerns over food versus fuel and competition for land).Land tenure/ownership – biomass tree crops stay in the ground for the long term (15-20 years), limiting farmers' decisions if they have a short-term tenancy.Lack of knowledge and awareness - most people don’t know about the benefits of biomass crops, the pros and cons, and how they can be used. Lack of professional support or advice because it is a small sector. There is not much capacity for producing large-scale planting materials, and not much equipment for contracting planting and harvesting, which limits scale-up.