Kārklu plantācijas un citas energokultūras pašnodrošinājumam ar enerģiju lauksaimniecībā

"IN this ‘decade of climate change’ food security was back on the agenda and farming’s response to climate change could contribute to energy security too, the NFU East Anglia’s regional conference was told.
Dr Jonathan Scurlock, NFU chief adviser on renewable energy and climate change, said climate change was more of an opportunity than a threat.
“We can deliver some of the solutions to adapting and mitigating climate change and with the $100 barrel of oil on the horizon we can deliver alternatives,” he said.
As individuals, farmers should be looking to invest in winter reservoirs and energy efficiency, such as on-site energy generation. Livestock farmers might also need to look at protecting animals from the extremes of weather, he said.
Perennial energy crops such as short rotation coppice willow could provide solid biomass fuel for power stations, local heat schemes and future transport fuels.
“We need 10 times the current amount of these crops just to get the market going. However, there is less flexibility in marketing – these crops cannot be diverted back to food uses like grain-based feedstocks.”
Farmers also had the opportunity to use small amounts of transport biofuels on their farms, as it was possible to produce 2,500 litres per year without registration or payment of fuel excise duty, which could be enough supply for one small commercial vehicle for a year, he said.
“We believe that we can be better than carbon neutral – we can be carbon negative in the future,” he said. “It is our aspiration that every farmer should have the opportunity to diversify and export energy services.”
Former Agriculture Minister John Gummer said it was important that, with rising prices, the public did not get the impression that farmers were making a fortune.
“We need to make sure that people understand the realities, the costs and inputs, particularly as input prices are up because of the increase in oil prices.
He stressed the importance of being part of the European Union. For agriculture, the EU was ‘utterly crucial’ he said. “It gives us a base of real strength which we will never have in Britain for all sorts of historical reasons.”
With the pressures of climate change and increasing world population the world was changing hugely, he said. “The challenge for farmers is how to meet that change and for politicians it is how we make it possible for farmers to make the changes more effectively.”
NFU director general Richard Macdonald said it was important to have sustainable markets – reasonable prices to be to afford to do what society wanted and make a profit.
“In order to do that we need to minimise regulatory burden.”
He said the ‘silver lining’ to the bluetongue and foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks had been that he and NFU president Peter Kendall had got to meet Prime Minister Gordon Brown several times to talk about the importance of food production and food security.
Regional NFU director Pamela Forbes said outside the area people did not perceive East Anglia as being a livestock region but bluetongue had highlighted how many finishers there were there.
On prices, she added: “Rising commodity prices in general are difficult for the livestock sector so we need to put even more pressure on supermarkets to see a lift in their prices.
“If we can just get over the current nasty hurdles currently in our way there is great scope.”"

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