Switchgrass in California: where, and at what price?

This article assesses the potential of California agriculture to supply biofuel feedstock in the form of switchgrass. We construct a fully calibrated, multiregion, multi‐input and multioutput model of agricultural supply for California's Central Valley based on the principles of positive mathematical programming. We exploit agronomic information obtained from a biophysical model to estimate regional production functions for switchgrass. The model predicts the extent and location of potential feedstock production in the Central Valley. Our results suggest that switchgrass adoption rates differ widely among agricultural regions, and that switchgrass is not likely to displace specialty crops by much statewide.

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