A New Study into the Alternative Use of Agricultural Crops
13 November 2009
The selection procedure for the research programme ‘Agriculture beyond Food’ has been completed. This five year scientific programme investigates the opportunities and limitations of bio-based products.
Three complementary research proposals were selected from the eight entries by Indonesian-Dutch research teams (see below for a list of the proposals that were selected). These proposals are aimed at the socio-economic, legal, geographical, anthropological and technological aspects of the production of vegetable oil for biodiesel and other products from crops including Jatropha curcas and oil palm. Land use, the forcing out of the local population and the potentially new means of existence for rural communities are key on the research agenda. Wageningen University and Research Center coordinates this research programme. Scientists from Groningen, Utrecht, Leiden, Wageningen, Twente in The Netherlands and from Indonesia take part in this study. This integrated approach is essential and characteristic of this programme. The grant that was awarded amounts to 2.5 million euros.The research programme ‘Agriculture beyond Food’ was launched on 18 November 2009 with a three day master class at the University of Wageningen. This master class shed light on the future opportunities of biomass from various perspectives.
A future for biomass
The global demand for biomass and related products is growing. This sparks off the debate as to how this affects sustainability and food security. At the same time this offers exiting new opportunities for the agricultural sector. Scientific insight into the opportunities and limitations are essential to adequately predict the future of the agricultural sector ‘beyond food’. This is the background against which the NWO and KNAW established the research programme ‘Agriculture beyond Food’. The goal of this research is to establish to which side the scale of the future of biomass will dip.
This programme fits in with the strategy of the Dutch government to support those countries that are suitable for the production of biomass. One of these countries is Indonesia. It is Holland’s ambition to play a key role in the sustainable production of biomass and to investigate the development of the bio-refinery concept in more depth. Within this collaboration, Indonesia would like to benefit from the opportunities of bio-energy and bio-materials particularly related to employment. In the long term, KNAW and NOW aim to expand ‘Agriculture beyond Food’ by involving new stakeholders and companies with the support of SenterNovem and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The selected proposals
The proposals that were selected are:
- Sliding from greasy land? Migration flows and forest transformation caused by oil palm expansion in Riau (Sumatra) & Berau (East Kalimantan)
University of Utrecht and Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, together with Bogor Agricultural University and Mulawarman University Samarinda - Breakthroughs in biofuels; Mobile Technology for Biodiesel Production from Indonesian Resources
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and Bandung Institute of Technology, together with Wageningen University and Research Center, Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, Universiteit Twente, University of Palangkaraya - JARAK: The commoditization of an alternative biofuel crop in Indonesia
University Leiden and Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, together with University of Indonesia, Wageningen University and Research Center, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Parahyangan University Bandung, Mulawarman University Samarinda, International Institute of Asian Studies Leiden, Bogor Agricultural University