Non-food and energy crops, a long tradition and potential for future

Alain JOARIS (Eurostat)

The production of crops for non-food purposes ("non-food crops") has a long tradition in the 15 EC Member States. Their importance has increased due, among other factors to the need to develop renewable energy in order to meet environmental objectives such as climate change. Several other industrial uses are under development. Agriculture might become in the future a very large provider of both industrial products and energy. Biomass might represent an alternative to non-renewable energy sources. Increasing productivity leads more and more to an over supply of "food-crops", therefore, alternative industrial uses could become more competitive. Since 1993, farmers have started the production of agriculture raw material for non-food purposes on set-aside land. (It is the second most important use of such land under the incentive scheme) In recent years, between 10 to 15% of set-aside land has been devoted to non-food crops. Together with some fiscal policies, this has helped to promote the development of crops for the manufacture of environment-friendly biofuels and biodegradable plastics.

Agricultural non-food productions areas.

The production of non-food crops has a long tradition in the European Community agriculture. Existing production has been traditionally very often limited to textile fibres (flax, cotton and hemp), starch for industrial use, vegetable oils, chemical and pharmaceutical products and also medicinal plants. Many more non-food purposes have been developed or are currently under development.

Flax has an age old tradition of varied uses and its natural quality and superior performance make it an important part of many products we use today. It makes coatings and floorings friendlier, concrete tougher, and fibre products stronger. Flax is also widely used for the manufacture of fine paper, composite products and oil in the cosmetics industry.

Maize is also becoming widely used in industry, and not only for bio-energy purposes. Maize cob is very attractive for several industrial processes such as surface finishing and heat and sound insulation. Maize particles can also be used in the packing industry for fragile goods.

Manufacturers today are turning to new linseed oil products in paint products and a co-adhesive in popular fibreboard. These linseed products replace some solvents and petroleum-based chemicals in the products’ formulations, thereby combating air pollution. Linoleum flooring, the most durable sheet flooring material, is attractive flooring for a new century. Linoleum contains about 30 per cent linseed oil. As linoleum flooring is completely biodegradable, it decomposes when discarded. 

Bio-energy is the sector that presently receives the most attention, but apart from direct combustion, it has a marginal share in the fuel mix. Production costs of biofuels remain very high compared to fossil fuels and are not competitive under current economic conditions where the environmental benefits of such fuels compared to traditional fuels are not reflected in the price. The Commission’s White Paper on Renewable Energy Sources states that "biofuels have an overall positive energy balance, although this varies from crop to crop, and also depends on the crops replaced" ¹

The reform of the CAP encouraged the use of agriculture areas for the production of non-food crops (box 1). Set-aside area has rapidly become a major contributor to non-food area in the Community (17% in 1993/94 for EU-12 and even 44% in 1995/96 for EU-15). Recent estimates show a stabilisation at some 20%. Rapeseed covers about 80% of the non-food area under the set-aside scheme. It is a key energy crop largely harvested for the production of diester (biodiesel) (table 1).

Cotton has traditionally been the major non-food crop with a share of about 30% of the total non-food crop area before 1993/94, five to seven-fold the area for the production of flax fibres. Cotton is cultivated in Greece (more than 400.000 ha in 1995), Spain (35.000 ha in 1995 and 65.000 in 1990) and some production is reported in Italy. In 1993/94 (EU-12), cotton was the major non-food crop, but dropped to second place in 1994/95 (EU-15) ² , rapeseed became the major non-food crop for the next 3 campaigns. Since the campaign 1997/98, cotton has again been the most important one. The area devoted to non-food rapeseed is directly linked with the set-aside rate, thus decreasing when the latter is set at a lower level.

Flax fibre is another traditional non-food crop, mainly produced in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The average annual increase in area under flax is nearly 20% since 1994/95 for EU-15, one of the most striking increases among non-food crops. Textile flax is not eligible for the non-food set-aside scheme, but linseed for oil production is.

The area under linseed for oil is the fastest mover among all non-food crops. Thanks to the technological progress of both harvesting and processing techniques its production has been increasing by an average of nearly 40% over the last 5 years (box 2).

The Prospects of renewable energy sources primary energy production.

Primary Energy Production (PEP) records the global domestic production of energy. The Community’s own domestic energy production meets just over half its needs and the supply deficit is increasing. Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are derivable for enviromental reasons and can help reduce dependency on foreign sources of fuel. Biomass and to some extent wind energy are two types of RES which are opportunities for agriculture (box 3). They contributed to 2.3% of the additional PEP and represented less than 10% of the PEP in 1996. Its contribution to Gross Inland Energy Consumption (GIEC) is comparable to the figures reported by the US (table 2).

Hydropower and biomass/wastes are the major Renewable Energy Sources in the EC, as they are in the US. The other RES make a lesser contribution but their share is increasing very rapidly (table 3).

The existing technical and economic potential for large hydropower plants has either been used, or is unavailable due to environmental constraints. The future increase in the contribution of hydropower energy will probably come from small hydro plants below 10Mw. Their production has increased by 11.8% over the last 5 years and reaches now 13% of all hydropower energy production. For the larger ones, above 10 Mw, there is a decrease of production of 1%, but they still contribute to 87% of the total hydropower energy production.

Wind energy is currently the fastest growing energy source for electricity production: it was 8 times more important in 1996 than it was in 1989. It is unevenly distributed in the European Community, since 97% of the total Community wind energy production in 1996 originated in only 6 Member States. Germany produces 43% of EC 15 energy wind production, Denmark 25%, United Kingdom 10%, the Netherlands 9%, Spain 7% and Sweden 3%. In these Member States, all the areas potentially suitable for wind energy application are not equally competitive and some bear additional installation and/or operational costs due to their particular location. Nevertheless, a major contribution from wind energy can be expected in the near future.

Energy from solar sources can either have thermal, photovoltaics or a passive origin. About 1% comes from photovoltaics, and 99% from thermal solar panels: 295 Ktoe in 1996. Passive origin is the most important source of energy from solar sources, but is not recorded in statistics since it is in fact energy gained from solar energy, mainly through windows. Solar energy is produced in Greece, Germany, Austria, Spain, France and Portugal. These Member States contributed 90% of the EC energy production from solar origin in 1996, increasing by 180% from 1989. Only Germany and Austria are well above this pace with respectively 400% and 800%.

Statistics on renewable energy sources

In its Communication "Energy for the future: renewable sources of energy - White Paper for a Community strategy and action plan" ³, the Commission highlights the potential of RES in the European Union. It also notes that it is unevenly and insufficiently exploited. RES currently accounts for less than 6% of GIEC. This is forecast to rise to between 7.4% and 9% by 2010, depending on changing policy assumptions, to which it is particularly sensitive. The Commission fixes an ambitious objective: to double the contribution of RES to GIEC within 15 years (i.e. to 12% by 2010), which would have a net positive employment effect of more than 500 000 jobs (box 4).

The major fields of application of the RES production and consumption covers biomass (box 5) and wastes ⁴ (wood, biofuels and biogas). The accountancy system for RES was defined along the general Eurostat principles for drafting energy balances. It should allow the determination of harmonised indicators for the assessment of the RES contribution in the security/diversification of supplies. While there is a limited number of RES there is a large number of technologies allowing the exploitation of these sources, most of which have not yet reached commercial maturity. Eurostat’s figures do not cover those technologies still at the research/development stage. The figures available only measure technologies which actually contribute to the overall energy balance or which could contribute significantly to the overall energy balance in the near future. 

Contribution of renewable energie sources in the Member States

The share of PEP in the GIEC of the Member States depends to a large extent on the existence of fossil fuel reserves. The only Member States that is self-sufficient is the United Kingdom, which is even a net exporter. Next is the Netherlands where PEP contributes 97% of the GIEC. Among the other Member States only Sweden, Denmark and France produce more than 50% of their GIEC from domestic sources.

In Member States without fossil fuel reserves, the contribution of RES to the PEP depends considerably on the energy policies and in particular on specific measures taken in promoting the RES at national level. Austria, Portugal, Finland and Sweden are the only Member States where this share was more than 20% in 1996. But for several other Member States, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Luxembourg, the RES contribution is below the Community average of 5.3%. This is also the case for the Netherlands and United Kingdom (figure 1).

For most of the Member States the contribution of RES to the GIEC has increased from 1989 to 1996, with the exception of Belgium, the Netherlands. For Austria, Finland and Sweden the apparent decrease between 1989 and 1996 is due to a large annual variation of RES contribution to GIEC and not to an actual decrease in the contribution level (figure 2).

Biomass energy production 

The combustion of firewood and of forestry/agriculture residues is the major RES technology in the EC, but its contribution to energy production does not increase as fast as other biomass sources do (table 4). The production of steam and heat are the main applications, while electricity is of a rather limited extent less than 3% in 1996. Firewood consumption in households is to a large extent (estimated to 2/3) not commercialised.

A 12% share of municipal waste is incinerated in the Member States with energy recovery equivalent to a total of 5.1 million tons oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 1996.

The forestry sector

Forestry statistics from the EC note the increasing importance of the production of "fuel wood": 16% from 1991 to 1995, as well as a decrease in the deficit of the trade balance of this product with third countries (table 5).

Fuel wood has not always the same importance in Member States (box 6). In 1995, the eight Member States where fuel wood share is below the EC15 average produce one third of the fuel wood of the Community, but two thirds of the total round wood.

Contribution of the agriculture sector (Box 7).

Besides the production of crops for energy purposes, the agricultural sector also contributes to energy production through the production of energy from the digestion of farm slurries (26.3 Ktoe in 1996) and from agro-food industry effluents (103.2 Ktoe in 1996).

The anaerobic fermentation of organic wastes is a practise that is rapidly expanding in the EC. It takes mainly place for environmental reasons, but energy recovery is a welcomed by-product.

Rapidly growing plant (Energy crops) material present a high potential for short-term expansion, since fallow land may be used for energy purposes under the CAP reform (table 6).

The non-food set-aside scheme ⁵ has been running since the marketing year 1993/94 (harvest 1993). In the marketing year 1995/96, an estimated 60% of the raw material produced on set-aside land have been used for energy purposes. There are two different categories of outlet for RES on set-aside land: liquid and solid biofuels. Wood crops cover perennial lignocellulosic crops (poplar, willow…) suitable for direct combustion (box 8). Oil crops cover oilseed crops (rape, sunflower…) for vegetable oil extraction with further conversion into a diesel substitute. Sugar or starch crops allow the production of ethanol by the fermentation of glucose or starchy materials after hydrolysis.

The total capacity for the production of bio-diesels in the EC is in the order 300.000 to 500.000 tons in 1994. It is solely based on oilseeds from set-aside land.

Large agricultural holdings (>= 100 ha AA) contribute more than 2/3 of the total land used for non-food products, but also more than ½ of the total land under incentive scheme. But the land used for the production of agricultural raw material for non-food purpose covers less than 1% of the total cultivated area of these holdings.

The set-aside schemes provided by the CAP reform that have been running since 1993/94 had a very important impact on the way land is managed by the holders. Though the rotation fallow possibility remains the most important way set aside land is managed, holders have also started other enterprises on the land. This practice, including an important component of RES, is a second and very important use of land set aside under the arable crop incentive scheme ⁶.

Incomes from the production of non-food biomass on set-aside land 

In the agricultural sector, the production of RES has a potential as an additional source of income for farmers. The Farm Accountancy Data Network has recorded micro-economic data on the cultivation of oilseeds for non-food purposes since 1995 and even 1994 for some Member States. A global Community picture cannot be drawn from the data available, but some convergence exists when data can be analysed.

In the FADN data subset for Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Denmark in 1994, 1995 and 1996, the distribution of the holdings is the same as for the ones of the farm structure survey in 1995. Holdings with non-food oilseeds are larger from an area viewpoint but also from the size measured by FADN standard economic indicators. For each of these Member States taken individually, the share of output coming from non-food oilseeds is negligible, most of the income comes from the subsidies. Compared to its share in the area, the output from non-food oilseeds is also very limited, since they cover 12% of the area, but they represent only 1.5% of the output (table 7).

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