Khanna, Madhu; et al. (2021): Redefining marginal land for bioenergy crop production
Khanna, Madhu; Chen, Luoye; Basso, Bruno; Cai, Ximing; Field, John L.; Guan, Kaiyu et al. (2021): Redefining marginal land for bioenergy crop production. In GCB Bioenergy 13 (10), pp. 1590–1609. DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12877.
„Marginal land has received wide attention for its potential to produce bioenergy feedstocks while minimizing diversion of productive agricultural land from food crop production. However, there has been no consensus in the literature on how to define or identify land that is marginal for food crops and beneficial for bioenergy crops. Studies have used different definitions to quantify the amount of such land available; these have largely been based on assumed biophysical thresholds for soil quality and productivity that are unchanging over space and time. We discuss the limitations of these definitions and the rationale for considering economic returns and environmental outcomes in classifying land as marginal.“