In this project, the existing combined food and energy production (CFE) system, located in Taastrup, will be evaluated by taking into account the environmental and economic inputs into the system with a common currency.

The CFE system consists of 10.1 ha of arable food (barley and wheat) and a pasture fodder crop (clover-grass) and ca. 1ha of biofuels (biomass) that consists of four belts of fast-growing trees (photo 1). The biomass belts are 11m wide rows of clonally mixed fast-growing bush willows (Salix spp.). On one side of the central willow rows are two rows of alder trees and, on the other, two rows of hazel bushes.

The alder (Alnus rubra) fixes nitrogen (N) and the hazel (Corylus spp.) is attractive to predatory insects. The biomass belts are harvested and chipped every 4-5 yr and the wood chips taken to a nearby heat and power station for the production of heat and electricity.

The food and fodder crops grown between the biomass belts are harvested annually. The crop rotation is one field of barley undersown with clover, two fields of clover-grass and one of wheat, thus making the percentage area division of the
CFE system (pasture: crops: tree biomass) 45:45:10, although 50% of the crop component (barley) is undersown with nitrogen fixing clover. The CFE system has been in this rotation since 2000; previously oats and fodder beets were produced from 1995 to 2000. The CFE system is managed organically, that is without the use of biocides and with the nutrient sources coming only from biological nitrogen fixation and the recycling of animal manure.

The student will get an opportunity to learn a novel method of evaluating a production system in terms of both environmental and economic inputs compared to the output of the system in question, expressed in energy terms. A previous student on a related topic gained a very high mark for the novelty of this work.
This type of analysis will become more in demand in the future by governments and businesses. The methodology of valuation can be extended to different scales from a production system to national agriculture production system and can be used in diversity of agricultural and industrial systems.

Contact:

John R. Porter

Professor at Department of Agriculture and Ecology

Tel: 353 33377
jrp@life.ku.dk