Farming Today This Week
The latest about food, farming and the countryside. Caz Graham discovers how biomass could be the next money-maker for British farmers, thanks to new renewable energy incentives.
Caz Graham discovers how biomass could be the next money-maker for British farmers.
Following new renewable energy incentives, Department for Energy and Climate Change says it believes the UK can double biomass electricity produced by the end of the decade.
Caz visits Shropshire farmer Keith Wilson who grows 1,000 hectares of miscanthus, a popular biomass crop, after ditching cereals in 2004. Now a passionate evangelist and biomass convert, he tells Farming Today that it couldn't be a better time for farmers to turn to energy crops. With Natural England grants readily available to new starters and Drax power stations making big investments, Professor Tony Bridgwater of Aston University says biomass is the fuel of the future.
But with questions over the UK's reliance on imports and their sustainability, will the UK be able to meet these ambitious deadlines? And with a growing population and issues of self-sufficiency, is it right that farmers are choosing to grow energy crops instead of producing more food?
Presented by Caz Graham. Produced by Clare Freeman in Birmingham.
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- Sat 4 Aug 2012 06:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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