NDLI: Profitability of Willow Biomass Crops Affected by Incentive Programs

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Buchholz, Thomas Volk, Timothy
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	The economics of willow biomass crops are strongly influenced by yield, production, and harvesting costs and the delivered price for biomass. Under current management practices, willow biomass crops with yields of 12 oven-dried metric tons (odt) ha$^{−1}$ year$^{−1}$ and a delivered price of $60 odt$^{−1}$ have an internal rate of return (IRR) of about 5.5 %. Yields below 9 odt ha$^{−1}$ year$^{−1}$ have an IRR <0 %. We examined the impact of different incentive programs on the returns from willow biomass crops and the hectares or tons of willow biomass supported across a range of yields. Incentive programs examined included establishment grants (EG), annual payments (AIP), low cost startup loans, and matching payments offered by two existing programs, the Conservation Resource Program (CRP) and more recently the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). EGs covering 75 % of the establishment costs provide high returns for growers on medium to high-productivity sites. Stand-alone AIPs with payments of $124 ha$^{−1}$ year$^{−1}$ paid over 5–15 years had little impact on profitability for growers but were costly for a funding agency. Low-cost loans with an interest rate of 2–4 % are one of the least expensive approaches ($1.3–6.6 odt$^{−1}$) and improve profitability for medium- and high-yielding (8–16 odt ha$^{−1}$ year$^{−1}$) sites. A matching payment incentive providing $50 per odt delivered was the only individual incentive approach that made low-yielding sites (6 odt ha$^{−1}$ year$^{−1}$) profitable but was costly per odt compared to other incentives. Current CRP incentives made willow profitable across all productivity scenarios. The BCAP program generates higher profits for all productivity scenarios but comes at a higher cost. Effective financial incentives need to be well designed and monitored so that the target audience is reached and the intended policy goals are attained.
Starting Page	53
Ending Page	64
Page Count	12
File Format	PDF
ISSN	19391234
Journal	BioEnergy Research
Volume Number	6
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	19391242
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2012-07-03
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Short rotation woody crops Willow Economic analysis Policy Financial incentives Subsidies Plant Sciences Plant Genetics & Genomics Plant Breeding/Biotechnology Plant Ecology Wood Science & Technology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment Agronomy and Crop Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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