Subfield profitability analysis reveals an economic case for cropland diversification

Brandes, Elke; McNunn, Gabriel Sean; Schulte, Lisa A.; Bonner, Ian J.; Muth, David J.; Babcock, Bruce A.; Sharma, Bhavna; Heaton, Emily A.

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/1/014009

Cited by 83 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…While prairie strips could be used with cover crops and/or longer rotations to potentially provide even greater levels of ecosystem services, the additional management complexity associated with adopting multiple practices may dampen farmers' enthusiasm for combined approaches (52). Perennial species used as dedicated energy crops offer a substantial opportunity for diversification to help meet both economic and environmental goals for the Midwest (18,53,54), but the levels of benefits realized are likely to be dependent on placement, crop species, management, and market factors (18,(54)(55)(56).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Schulte

Niemi

Helmers

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

223

174

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Loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem services from agricultural lands remain important challenges in the United States despite decades of spending on natural resource management. To date, conservation investment has emphasized engineering practices or vegetative strategies centered on monocultural plantings of nonnative plants, largely excluding native species from cropland. In a catchment-scale experiment, we quantified the multiple effects of integrating strips of native prairie species amid corn and soybean crops, with prairie strips arranged to arrest run-off on slopes. Replacing 10% of cropland with prairie strips increased biodiversity and ecosystem services with minimal impacts on crop production. Compared with catchments containing only crops, integrating prairie strips into cropland led to greater catchment-level insect taxa richness (2.6-fold), pollinator abundance (3.5-fold), native bird species richness (2.1-fold), and abundance of bird species of greatest conservation need (2.1-fold). Use of prairie strips also reduced total water runoff from catchments by 37%, resulting in retention of 20 times more soil and 4.3 times more phosphorus. Corn and soybean yields for catchments with prairie strips decreased only by the amount of the area taken out of crop production. Social survey results indicated demand among both farming and nonfarming populations for the environmental outcomes produced by prairie strips. If federal and state policies were aligned to promote prairie strips, the practice would be applicable to 3.9 million ha of cropland in Iowa alone.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Schulte

Niemi

Helmers

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

223

174

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Recently, Brandes et al (2016) proposed a framework to evaluate the profitability of marginal or degraded areas within croplands and reported that the inclusion of perennials in these areas can increase the overall profitability by 80%. It is important to further review and estimate the areal extent of marginally productive or degraded croplands on a global scale along the lines suggested by Gibbs and Salmon (2015).…”

Section: Abandoned or Degraded Croplandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Growing Dedicated Energy Crops on Marginal Lands and Ecosystem Services

Blanco‐Canqui

2016

Soil Science Soc of Amer J

116

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Marginal lands are candidates for growing dedicated energy crops such as perennial warm-season grasses (WSGs) and short-rotation woody crops (SrWCs), but actual field data on ecosystem services have not been widely discussed. This review (i) discusses potential marginal lands studied for energy crop production, (ii) considers the impacts of energy crops on ecosystem services, and (iii) underlines research needs. Some marginal or degraded lands studied for energy crops include highly erodible, flood-prone, compacted, saline, acid, contaminated, or sandy soils, reclaimed minesoils, urban marginal sites, and abandoned or degraded croplands. Field data are few but indicate that ecosystem services vary with the type of marginal land, management (i.e., fertilizer or amendment rates), and perennial species. M arginal lands are candidates for growing dedicated bioenergy crops, such as perennial WSGs and SRWCs, to reduce competition for land between energy and food production. Marginal lands can be defined as soils that have physical and chemical problems or are uncultivated or adversely affected by climatic conditions. The potential of marginal lands for growing WSGs and SRWCs as biofuel has received increased attention in recent years. Several questions remain, however, about which and how to grow dedicated energy crops on marginal lands, how dedicated energy crops will perform on different types of marginal lands, and whether these sites can produce abundant biomass while maintaining or improving ecosystem services.Many have used models to address the above questions and estimate the global and regional potential of marginal lands for cellulosic biomass production. These modeling studies have suggested that marginal lands offer a large potential for producing dedicated bioenergy crops while sequestering soil C, reducing net greenhouse gas emissions, and improving water quality (Davis et al., 2010;Gelfand et Humberto Blanco-Canqui* Core Ideas• Dedicated bioenergy crops can enhance ecosystem services in marginal lands.• Ecosystem services vary with the type of marginal land.• More field data are needed about the performance of energy crops on marginal lands.

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“…In Iowa, the heart of the Corn Belt, Brandes et al. (), showed that differences in profitability across subfield areas within a farm can be substantial and estimated that a significant portion of the state's cropland, up to 25%, could have been incurring economic losses in the last decade.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where can switchgrass production be more profitable than corn and soybean? An integrated subfield assessment in Iowa, USA

2018

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Perennial bioenergy crops are considered an important feedstock for a growing bioeconomy. However, in the USA, production of biofuel from these dedicated, nonfood crops is lagging behind federal mandates and markets have yet to develop. Most studies on the economic potential of perennial biofuel crops have concluded that even high‐yielding bioenergy grasses are unprofitable compared to corn/soybeans, the prevailing crops in the United States Corn Belt. However, they did not account for opportunities precision agriculture presents to integrate perennials into agronomically and economically underperforming parts of corn/soybean fields. Using publicly available subfield data and market projections, we identified an upper bound to the areas in Iowa, United States, where the conversion from corn/soybean cropland to an herbaceous bioenergy crop, switchgrass, could be economically viable under different price, land tenancy, and yield scenarios. Assuming owned land, medium crop prices, and a biomass price of US$ 55 Mg−1, we showed that 4.3% of corn/soybean cropland could break even when converted to switchgrass yielding up to 10.08 Mg ha−1. The annualized change in net present value on each converted subfield patch ranged from just above US$ 0 ha−1 to 692 ha−1. In the three counties of highest economic opportunity, total annualized producer benefits from converting corn/soybean to switchgrass summed to US$ 2.6 million, 3.4 million, and 7.6 million, respectively. This is the first study to quantify an upper bound to the potential private economic benefits from targeted conversion of unfavorable corn/soybean cropland to switchgrass, leaving arable land already under perennial cover unchanged. Broadly, we conclude that areas with high within‐field yield variation provide highest economic opportunities for switchgrass conversion. Our results are relevant for policy design intended to improve the sustainability of agricultural production. While focused on Iowa, this approach is applicable to other intensively farmed regions globally with similar data availability.

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Subfield profitability analysis reveals an economic case for cropland diversification

Cited by 83 publications

References 31 publications

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Prairie strips improve biodiversity and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services from corn–soybean croplands

Growing Dedicated Energy Crops on Marginal Lands and Ecosystem Services

Where can switchgrass production be more profitable than corn and soybean? An integrated subfield assessment in Iowa, USA

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