IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v109y2021ics0264837721003380.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perceptions about switchgrass and land allocation decisions: Evidence from a farmer survey in Missouri

Author

Listed:
  • Burli, Pralhad
  • Lal, Pankaj
  • Wolde, Bernabas
  • Jose, Shibu
  • Bardhan, Sougata

Abstract

Switchgrass has been identified as a high potential bioenergy feedstock, and was expected to play an important role in achieving the production targets for cellulosic biofuels laid out under the Energy Security and Independence Act of 2007. However, the development of cellulosic biofuels at commercially viable levels has been slower than anticipated and supply side challenges, due to limited feedstock availability, continue to be a major bottleneck. Understanding the role of the farming community, their perceptions, and their willingness to cultivate dedicated bioenergy feedstocks is an important part of overcoming these challenges. To this end, a survey was administered in March-April 2017 and the results of our analysis are both insightful and timely. We studied the role of farmer perceptions around the suitability of switchgrass for their operations. We evaluated the impact of their perceptions and existing land uses on their willingness to cultivate switchgrass and their land allocation decisions using a 2-step Heckman model. Factors such as potential for diversification of crop-mix, creation of habitat for wildlife, as well as ownership of woodland or forestland played an important role in influencing farmer willingness to cultivate switchgrass. We also found that land allocated for switchgrass cultivation was more likely to come from lands under non-crop uses, such as hay or other land use, and was unlikely to cause displacement of lands used for cultivating row crops, which obviates conflicts that could arise from competing land use vis-à-vis food-crops.

Suggested Citation

  • Burli, Pralhad & Lal, Pankaj & Wolde, Bernabas & Jose, Shibu & Bardhan, Sougata, 2021. "Perceptions about switchgrass and land allocation decisions: Evidence from a farmer survey in Missouri," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:109:y:2021:i:c:s0264837721003380
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105615
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837721003380
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105615?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Burli, Pralhad & Lal, Pankaj & Wolde, Bernabas & Jose, Shibu & Bardhan, Sougata, 2019. "Factors affecting willingness to cultivate switchgrass: Evidence from a farmer survey in Missouri," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 20-29.
    2. Mohit Anand & Ruiqing Miao & Madhu Khanna, 2019. "Adopting bioenergy crops: Does farmers’ attitude toward loss matter?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 50(4), pages 435-450, July.
    3. James J. Heckman, 1977. "Sample Selection Bias As a Specification Error (with an Application to the Estimation of Labor Supply Functions)," NBER Working Papers 0172, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Salifu, Abdul Wahab & Gedikoglu, Haluk & Parcell, Joseph, 2019. "Producers' Willingness to Provide Crop Residue for Bioenergy Production," 2019 Annual Meeting, February 2-5, 2019, Birmingham, Alabama 284274, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    5. Douglas J. Miller & Andrew J. Plantinga, 1999. "Modeling Land Use Decisions with Aggregate Data," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(1), pages 180-194.
    6. Swinton, Scott M. & Babcock, Bruce A. & James, Laura K. & Bandaru, Varaprasad, 2011. "Higher US crop prices trigger little area expansion so marginal land for biofuel crops is limited," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5254-5258, September.
    7. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    8. Barham, Bradford L & Mooney, Daniel F. & Swinton, Scott M., 2016. "Inconvenient Truths about Landowner (Un)Willingness to Grow Dedicated Bioenergy Crops," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(4), pages 1-8, November.
    9. Arne Henningsen & Ott Toomet, 2011. "maxLik: A package for maximum likelihood estimation in R," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 443-458, September.
    10. Lynes, Melissa K. & Bergtold, Jason S. & Williams, Jeffery R. & Fewell, Jason E., 2016. "Willingness of Kansas farm managers to produce alternative cellulosic biofuel feedstocks: An analysis of adoption and initial acreage allocation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 336-348.
    11. Fewell, Jason & Lynes, Melissa & Williams, Jeffery & Bergtold, Jason, 2013. "Kansas Farmers Interest and Preferences for Growing Cellulosic Bioenergy Crops," Journal of the ASFMRA, American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, vol. 2013, pages 1-22, June.
    12. Maddala,G. S., 1986. "Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521338257, September.
    13. Luo, Yi & Miller, Shelie A., 2017. "Using Game Theory to Resolve the “Chicken and Egg” Situation in Promoting Cellulosic Bioenergy Development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 29-41.
    14. Toomet, Ott & Henningsen, Arne, 2008. "Sample Selection Models in R: Package sampleSelection," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 27(i07).
    15. Hipple, Pat & Duffy, Michael, 2002. "Farmer's Motivation for Adoption of Switchgrass," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10347, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    16. Ciaian, Pavel & Kancs, d'Artis, 2011. "Interdependencies in the energy-bioenergy-food price systems: A cointegration analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 326-348, January.
    17. Wojtyś, Magorzata & Marra, Giampiero & Radice, Rosalba, 2016. "Copula Regression Spline Sample Selection Models: The R Package SemiParSampleSel," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 71(i06).
    18. Alan Fernihough, 2011. "Simple logit and probit marginal effects in R," Working Papers 201122, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    19. Xie, Lunyu & MacDonald, Sarah L. & Auffhammer, Maximilian & Jaiswal, Deepak & Berck, Peter, 2019. "Environment or food: Modeling future land use patterns of miscanthus for bioenergy using fine scale data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 225-236.
    20. Swinton, Scott & Babcock, Bruce A. & James, Laura K. & Bandaru, Varaprasad, 2011. "Higher U.S. Crop Prices Trigger Little Area Expansion So Marginal Land for Biofuels is Limited," Staff General Research Papers Archive 34897, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    21. Altman, Ira & Bergtold, Jason & Sanders, Dwight & Johnson, Tom, 2015. "Willingness to supply biomass for bioenergy production: A random parameter truncated analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-10.
    22. Theodoros Skevas & Ioannis Skevas & Scott M. Swinton, 2018. "Does Spatial Dependence Affect the Intention to Make Land Available for Bioenergy Crops?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 393-412, June.
    23. Gedikoglu, Haluk, 2012. "Impact of Off-Farm Employment on Farmers’ Willingness to Grow Switchgrass and Miscanthus," 2012 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2012, Birmingham, Alabama 119663, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    24. Miller, Douglas & Plantinga, Andrew J., 1999. "Modeling Land Use Decisions with Aggregate Data," Staff General Research Papers Archive 1487, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Van Deynze, B., 2018. "The Effects of Experience on Landowner Preferences over Bioenergy Feedstocks," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277001, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Miroslava Rajcaniova & d'Artis Kancs & Pavel Ciaian, 2014. "Bioenergy and global land-use change," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(26), pages 3163-3179, September.
    3. Lynes, Melissa K. & Bergtold, Jason S. & Williams, Jeffery R. & Fewell, Jason E., 2016. "Willingness of Kansas farm managers to produce alternative cellulosic biofuel feedstocks: An analysis of adoption and initial acreage allocation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 336-348.
    4. repec:lic:licosd:33613 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Piroli, Giuseppe & Ciaian, Pavel & Kancs, d'Artis, 2012. "Land use change impacts of biofuels: Near-VAR evidence from the US," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 98-109.
    6. Miroslava Rajcaniova & d'Artis Kancs & Pavel Ciaian, 2014. "Bioenergy and global land-use change," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(26), pages 3163-3179, September.
    7. Mellor, P. & Lord, R.A. & João, E. & Thomas, R. & Hursthouse, A., 2021. "Identifying non-agricultural marginal lands as a route to sustainable bioenergy provision - A review and holistic definition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. Kauffman, Nathan S. & Hayes, Dermot J., 2013. "The trade-off between bioenergy and emissions with land constraints," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 300-310.
    9. Lungarska, Anna & Chakir, Raja, 2018. "Climate-induced Land Use Change in France: Impacts of Agricultural Adaptation and Climate Change Mitigation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 134-154.
    10. Jennifer Ifft & Deepak Rajagopal & Ryan Weldzuis, 2019. "Ethanol Plant Location and Land Use: A Case Study of CRP and the Ethanol Mandate," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(1), pages 37-55, March.
    11. Chen, Xiaoguang & Khanna, Madhu, 2018. "Effect of corn ethanol production on Conservation Reserve Program acres in the US," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 124-134.
    12. Catherine L. Kling & Raymond W. Arritt & Gray Calhoun & David A. Keiser, 2016. "Research Needs and Challenges in the FEW System: Coupling Economic Models with Agronomic, Hydrologic, and Bioenergy Models for Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 16-wp563, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    13. Bergtold, Jason S. & Shanoyan, Aleksan & Fewell, Jason E. & Williams, Jeffery R., 2017. "Annual bioenergy crops for biofuels production: Farmers' contractual preferences for producing sweet sorghum," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 724-731.
    14. Paudel, Krishna P. & Timilsina, Govinda R., 2010. "Would There Be Surplus Grains for Biofuels? An Assessment of Agro-economic Factors and Biofuel Production Potential at the Global Level," Staff Papers 113125, Louisiana State University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.
    15. Chamberlain, Jim F. & Miller, Shelie A., 2012. "Policy incentives for switchgrass production using valuation of non-market ecosystem services," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 526-536.
    16. Dumortier, Jerome, 2015. "Impact of agronomic uncertainty in biomass production and endogenous commodity prices on cellulosic biofuel feedstock composition," IU SPEA AgEcon Papers 198707, Indiana University, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
    17. Wilson, P. & Glithero, N.J. & Ramsden, S.J., 2014. "Prospects for dedicated energy crop production and attitudes towards agricultural straw use: The case of livestock farmers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 101-110.
    18. Gérard, Maxence & Jayet, Pierre-Alain, 2023. "European farmers’ response to crop residue prices and implications for bioenergy policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    19. Weng, Weizhe & Cobourn, Kelly M. & Kemanian, Armen R. & Boyle, Kevin J. & Shi, Yuning & Stachelek, Joseph & White, Charles, 2020. "Quantifying Co-Benefits of Water Quality Policies: An Integrated Assessment Model of Nitrogen Management," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304667, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Raja Chakir, 2009. "Spatial Downscaling of Agricultural Land-Use Data: An Econometric Approach Using Cross Entropy," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(2), pages 238-251.
    21. De Laporte, Aaron V. & Ripplinger, David G., 2019. "The effects of site selection, opportunity costs and transportation costs on bioethanol production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 73-82.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:109:y:2021:i:c:s0264837721003380. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.