Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sites, renewable energy production most commonly occurs on large-scale farms. This is
because these farm businesses have the resources to fund, or leverage, the significant
capital investment required for profitable renewable energy generation and in the case of
biogas, the capacity to produce sufficient inputs. The decentralization of energy production
within the energy regime, as a result of dispersed renewable energy production, could thus
contribute to the increasing concentration of production in the agricultural regime. This has
sustainability implications, especially as the reliance of biogas technologies on maize
suggests that continued up-take will lead to further intensification and mono-cropping in
agriculture, although efforts are being made to diversify the crops which can be used in
digesters. There is also some evidence in the three sites that organic farmers are taking up
renewable energy production, as it is consistent with their low impact orientation. T here is
also some suggestion that having a viable alternative source of income will mean that
farmers feel less economic incentive to intensify their commodity production to make a
profit.
Undoubtedly, introduction of renewable energy production on farms gives farmers
access to the energy sector, altering their economic position. Farms producing renewable
energy can 'process' their produce independently and are thus protected from volatile
market prices for agricultural commodities. Alternatively, while low prices have
encouraged uptake of biogas, rising commodity prices are providing a disincentive. Energy
production on farms therefore offers a potential escape from the squeeze-on-agriculture
effect that has been firmly associated with modern productivist systems (van der Ploeg,
2006; Wilson, 2007). However, profitability of the farms producing renewable energy is
now vulnerable to the institutional arrangements of the energy regime and its sectoral
policies.
Conclusion
In this chapter we have presented three case studies of transition towards on-farm
renewable energy production. As 'transitions in the making' it is not yet clear yet what
form regime change will ultimately take in the three countries, or indeed if the transition
will be 'completed', owing to saturation effects and subsidy dependence. At present,
considerable branching appears underway. Analysis using the MLP has proved useful for
describing the trajectory to date, with evidence of niche-, regime- and landscape-level
factors. However, operationalizing MLP terms for use in analyzing an emerging transition
proved challenging (also explored in detail in Karanikolas
et al.
, this volume). The analysis
demonstrates the need for further research on multi-regime interaction and spatial location
of transitions. The authors also question the utility of defining regimes in response to a
single function, in light of the multiple functions characterizing the agricultural sector.
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