Improved agricultural practices

The case studies were presented and modeled in BIKE. Here is an example of the cultivation in degraded land for HVO production in Uruguay.

Case 3: Brassica for HVO production

Cultivation of Brassica in Uruguay

The cultivation of Brassica in Uruguay demonstrates the benefits of sustainable agricultural practices. The data used in the model represents a reference case and improved case. The reference case is the conventional crop rotation practice using non-productive cover crops while in the improved case, Brassica replaces the non-productive cover crops.

BIKE_ILUC_green_shape

The model demonstrates that it would be profitable to use brassica as a rotational winter crop and this would give additional value to land as well as increasing gross revenues. However, results are linked to the crop selling price and economic support may be needed to incentivise farmers in case of market variances.

Case 4: Biomethane production via Biogas Done Right model
The benefit of climate positive farming is demonstrated using two case studies, depending on whether the biomass feedstock is produced based on monocropping system or sequential cropping (aka double cropping) system. The two case studies focus on the production of biomethane and organic fertiliser (aka digestate) using low-ILUC biomass feedstocks.

The case study compares the monocropping system with the sequential cropping which can be used for the biogas plant. Moving from monocropping to sequential cropping reduces the overall biogas yield from 13.8 km3 per ha per year to 12.4km3 per ha per year. However the digestate yields allow nutrient reintegration without additional chemical fertilizers in the second case.

The cost breakdown and the supply chain for the castor oil supply chain avails of the use of underutilised lands and takes advantage from a decentralised configuration between the oil mill located in Kenya and the refinery located in Italy. If credits were given to the additionality measures, fairer economic conditions would be granted to farmers, considering that cultivation has the highest share of costs.

Replicability of the two value chains well performed to analyse the cases in other regions of the European Union.

References/links in BIKE website: