Increasing Biomass Production to Sustain the Bioeconomy

Publication Type

Book chapter

Authors

Lewandowski, I.

Year of publication

2017

Published in

Knowledge-Driven Developments in the Bioeconomy - Technological and Economic Perspectives

Editor

Dabbert, S., Lewandowski, I., Weiss, J., Pyka, A. (Eds.)

Pubisher

Springer , Cham

Series/labeling

Economic Complexity and Evolution

ISBN / ISSN / eISSN

978-3-319-58373-0

DOI

10.1007/978-3-319-58374-7_10

Page (from - to)

179-203

The bioeconomy builds on biomass as a resource base. Increased demand
for biomass in a growing bioeconomy will lead to increased competition for this
resource. However, current bioeconomy strategies are not sufficient to ensure the
additional biomass demand is met sustainably. This contribution describes the
criteria for a sustainable production and supply of biomass and suggests approaches
for increasing the availability of sustainably produced biomass. In this context,
the concept of sustainable agricultural intensification is elaborated by showing
how breeding and more efficient cropping and land use systems can contribute
to increasing biomass production. The participation and empowerment of farmers
is addressed as a prerequisite for the implementation of sustainable biomass
production. It is concluded that sustainable intensification on available agricultural
land has large potential for increasing biomass supply and appears a more promising
strategy than mobilizing additional land resources, mainly marginal land. In this
strategy, the integration of land use functions, biomass production systems and
biomass uses offer an encouraging method for avoiding competition for biomass
and land for its production. A biomass supply strategy is envisioned, which makes
use of all forms of biomass in an integrated approach and takes account of the
interactions between them through the conceptualization of bioeconomic networks.
The implementation of efficient strategies for the securing of sustainable biomass
production and supply will require both continued research and political support.