First-gen crops can't meet biofuel targets, say researchers

In Minnesota, researchers led by the University of Minnesota have produced a map outlining where crops could be intensified to increase biofuel production. Researchers calculated median yields and yield gaps for 10 ethanol and 10 biodiesel crops, producing both global and individual results for 238 countries, territories and protectorates that includes more than 1200 country/crop combinations to pinpoint which crops in which countries could benefit most from intensification of farming practices.

“Even if all countries across the globe were to increase yields for all 20 of the crops in our study simply to median levels of what was possible in the year 2000, we estimate that global biofuel production could be brought up to only 121 billion liters. This re-affirms the urgent need for next-generation biofuels because agricultural biofuels alone cannot meet the global need,” said Matt Johnston, from the University of Minnesota.