Introducing Miscanthus to the greening measures of the EU Common Agricultural Policy

2016/11/07 by Christoph Emmerling, Ralf Pude · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · #Bioenergy crop production and management #Biofuel production and bioconversion #Bioeconomy and Sustainability Development #Miscanthus #Short rotation coppice #Greening #Ecosystem services #Common Agricultural Policy #Energy crop #Greenhouse gas #Agriculture #Bioenergy #Agroforestry #Environmental science #Business #Natural resource economics #Renewable energy #Ecosystem #Ecology #Economics #Biology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/gcbb.12409

openalex publication_date 2016/11/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Abstract The EU Common Agricultural Policy regulations for the 2014–2020 period comprise three ‘greening measures’ aimed at climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. These three greening measures consist of the maintenance of permanent pastures, crop diversification and ecological focus areas ( EFA s). Farmers are to assign 5% of their land as EFA s; this concerns for example grassland, hedges, buffer strips or nitrogen‐fixing crops. Short rotation coppice ( SRC ) as a perennial bioenergy crop is also considered as an eligible EFA within the EU greening measures, whereas Miscanthus is not. However, a quantitative comparison ( t ‐test) of SRC and Miscanthus revealed that both crops are similar in the delivery of a variety of ecosystem services, such as C storage and biodiversity. Moreover, Miscanthus may contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions due to a considerable CO 2 mitigation potential. Due to the overall consensus of the ecological significance of Miscanthus in agro‐ecosystems with the greening measures within the EU CAP reform, we recommend acknowledging Miscanthus as an eligible EFA with a similar payment as for SRC , boundary ridges or buffer strips. Along with Miscanthus , a number of other perennial renewables also may contribute to what the CAP intends. We predict that introducing Miscanthus and even other perennial energy crops could also make European agriculture more innovative and effective.

Citations

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Cited by

• Miscanthus × giganteus [wikipedia]