Agroecology Program's scholarships or internships, please contact Dr. Bhat. (
), or Dr. Jayachandran (
). Conclusions.
Water Sustainability in Biofuel Production: A Lesson from India Stephany Alvarez-Ventura,
[email protected] Agroecology Program, Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University
Case
Introduction Growing consensus of inevitable rise in energy costs coupled with climate change impacts have increased the market for biofuels production. The large diversity of possible biofuels crops poses unique challenges at different levels of policy and management. Particularly, competition of biofuels crop production with food/fodder areas and water resources forces authorities to analyze the comparative advantage of available biofuels crops. In addition, growing water depletion and rising energy costs of groundwater pumping, which is subsidized in some countries like India, poses a new challenge for water resource management and biofuels expansion. Therefore, management of water resources must be effectively integrated to ensure proper allocation to growing population, energy demands and ecosystem needs. Objectives: •To learn about India’s biofuel initiative using non-edible oil bearing trees and shrubs (NEOBTS) •To analyze the water use efficiency of selected biodiesel crops •Understand the global challenges of biofuels production and water resource management
Study:
Land
and
Water
Efficiency
in
• Focus on waste land reclamation • Focus on non-edible tree species • Prevents soil erosion • Improves water holding capacity of soil • Improves the bio-productivity and economic productivity of wasteland • Reduces GHG emissions • Rural development • Little direct impact on food supply/price • More crop per drop • Value added products
•Loss of pastoral areas •Better use of areas with other food crops •Long maturation phase •Lack of prior cultivation/yield/ harvest •Water tradeoffs •Reduced environmental flows •Market growth and centralization/landuse changes •Tradeoffs between biofuel use for transportation versus rural electrification
Pros
Cons
The challenge of fitting IWRM into the biofuels development framework is fundamentally addressing the needs of different water users in a cooperative manner such that energy security is met without high social or environmental tradeoffs. The socio-economic and environmental implications of allocating water resources to biofuels in water stressed, high populated areas is a challenge partially being addressed by India’s non-edible oil bearing trees and shrubs (NEOBTS) initiative, with great prospect for other developing countries to follow.
In Mexico, increased corn production for biofuels can displace food crops ,requiring expansion of agricultural areas and thus increasing water use
Biofuel crops that are rainfed, such as sugarcane in Brazil, use “green water” but ultimately reduce “blue water” in that less water left for ecosystem needs (IWMI 2008). Competition for Water
Environmental flows: Rainfed versus Irrigation
Clearing of lands
Figure 2. Competition for water is rising between industrial, agriculture, and domestic sectors, leaving ecosystems with fewer resources to provide adequate services (UNEP 2008).
In countries like Malaysia and Indonesia where oil palm production has promoted deforestation, erosion and sedimentation has reduced water quality and water holding capacity (Yule 2010).
Water Water Required Required Time to full Life Span (mm/yr) (mm/yr) maturity (years) Low High
Biodiesel Crop a
Pongamia
b
Simarouba Mahua Neem
cd
cd
Jatropha Oil palm Rapeseed Soybean
a
a
a
a
4-7 yrs
25
150
300
Ave Crop Average Oil yield Native/ Trees per yield in Kgs Ave Oil % Oil yield in /mm of Edible/ nonnative hectare ha -1 Content kg ha -1 water Nonedible (to India) 1000
5000
30%
6.67
Non-edible
900
1.8
Edible
non-native
1500
8-10yrs
50
300
700
500
1500
10 yrs
60
550
-
200
500
35%
175
-
Edible
native
5 yrs
150-200
200
900
400
1400
35%
500
0.91
Non-edible
native
3 yrs
20
150
300
2000
1500
30%
600
2.67
Non-edible non-native
25
1800
2500
150
20,000
25%
5000
Unless biofuel crops serve other purposes, high tradeoffs in water conflicts may affect the long term sustainability of biofuel production. Hence IWRM needs to be considered as biofuel production increases in the coming decades. In a global context, some biodiesel crops (ex. soybean or rapeseed) are highly inefficient in terms of oil produced per consumption of water or (like oil palm) have high environmental impacts. India’s biofuels policy is trying to reduce some of these tradeoffs by cultivating biofuels crops in wastelands, which has many environmental benefits. Both developed countries like Europe and the US as well as developing countries like Brazil, could adapt India’s NEOBTS initiative to manage conflicts between biofuels and water needs. India’s decentralized NEOBTS initiative for biodiesel development provides multiple functions without placing high stress on water resources or displacing food growing areas. However, their centralized system of growing sugarcane to meet ethanol demand could have large impacts on water resources. Instead of the current large scale production forecasts and its inevitable water conflicts attached, more stakeholder participation focusing on water use efficiency and IWRM could influence India’s policy makers to formulate proper corrections to ensure long term sustainability in biofuels production.
2.33
Edible
120-150 days
Na
350
450
na
830
40%
332
0.83
Edible
100-150 days
Na
450
700
Na
1105
18%
200
0.35
Edible
3000
native
60%
10-12 yrs
Conclusions
Figure 1. Land and Water Requirement for 100,000kg of Oil Production 3500
non-native
water requirement (cm/yr)
• Integrated water resource management (IWRM) is a process by which several stakeholders plan and implement an integrated management scheme of long term sustainable water use.
NEOBTS
There is an eminent challenge in meeting growing water and energy demands that must be carefully managed to ensure sustainability in resource use. The focus for development of biodiesel in India will be to utilize waste and degraded forest and non-forest lands only for cultivation of NEOBTS for production of biodiesel. Compared to other biodiesel crops, NEOBTS can be more efficient at producing oil per land and water inputs.
Table 1. Biodiesel crop water use per oil produced
Challenges of biofuel energy and IWRM: A Global Context
India’s
2500 Pongamia Simarouba Mahua Neem Jatropha Oil palm Rapeseed Soybean
2000
1500
1000
some non-native
500
Biofuel income used to develop water infrastructure for village. Picture Source: www.friendsofsouthasia.org
Watering a newly planted Simarouba seedling Degraded forest land, Hassan, Karnataka
Source: Estimates typically stated. Adapted from a Rajagopal (2008); b Yoshi (2010); c USAB (2010); d Stipien 2010.
0 0
200 400 600 Land requirement (ha)
800
Recommendations based on India’s model :
Brazil
Europe • U.S. uses mainly soybean for biodiesel production. Soybean is the most inefficient biodiesel crop in terms of land and water input for oil produced. (Fig. 1). • In Florida, use Simarouba glauca (native range) • In western arid plains, use jatropha • Find a species of NEOBTS for the north and determine socioeconomic viability
US
• Europe controls over 90% of biodiesel production through rapeseed production. In terms of oil per unit water, rapeseed efficiency is only 0.83 while Pomgamia, producing 6 times more oil yield per ha, has an efficiency of 6.67. • Find a species of NEOBTS and determine socio-economic viability
• Use species that serve multiple functions • Use species that require minimal inputs. • Develop a working relationship with stakeholders of water to determine sustainable water allocation for biofuel crops • Drip irrigation • Develop infrastructure for wastewater recycling
India
• Also uses Soybean • With growing deforestation rates, Brazil could instead grow NEOBTS that would provide much higher yields with lower water requirements. Thus, energy demands could be met without compromising water resources for ecosystems needs. Moreover, it could provide some habitat alternative for avian and other species that have declined due to deforestation. • Use Simarouba glauca
Literature cited International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Water Policy Brief: Water Implications of biofuel Crops: Understanding Tradeoffs and Identifying Options. (2008).Issue 30. Joshi, Syamasundar . Biofuel Park, Madenur, Hassan. University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India. Interview and Lectures. 2010 Koh, LP, and J. Ghazoul. "Biofuels, Biodiversity, and People: Understanding the Conflicts and Finding Opportunities." Biological Conservation 141.10 (2008): 2450-60. Rajagopal, D. "Implications of India's Biofuel Policies for Food, Water and the Poor." Water Policy 10.Suppl. 1 (2008): 95-106. Stepien, Daria. Master’s thesis title: Biodiesel in the State of Karnataka, India- Policy Recommendations for a Growing Transportation System. Florida International University. 2009 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Towards Sustainable Production and Use of Resources: Assessing Biofuels. (2009) Yule, Catherine M. Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in Indo-Malayan peat swamp forests. Biodivers Conserv (2010) 19:393–409.
Acknowledgments I would like to thank Dr. Mahadev Bhat and Dr. Krish Jayachandran for their guidance throughout the study, and the Biofuel Park, UAS & TNAU’s professors and staff for their time, knowledge, and hospitality. Funding for this project was provided by the USDA NIFA International Science and Education Grants Program (2008-51160-04356). If interested in any of the FIU Agroecology Program’s scholarships or internships, please contact Dr. Bhat (
[email protected]), or Dr. Jayachandran (
[email protected]).
