Biogas in organic agriculture - effects on productivity, energy self-sufficiency and greenhouse gas emissions

Summary

Reduction in the dependency on fossil fuels has been identified as one of the important areas for development of organic farming in Denmark (ICROFS, 2008). The increased public awareness on the need for actions against global warming has brought Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and the use of fossil fuels into focus in the agricultural organisations in general as well as in the organic agricultural organisations.
Several scenarios for biogas production in organic agriculture could be imagined. The implementation of biogas production on organic farms and the effect of this implementation depend on the existing farming system, how the implementation is done and how this changes the farming system. Therefore the aim of this paper is to focus specifically on biogas production in organic agriculture, how biogas production might change crop rotation and the product outputs from organic agriculture, and how different scenarios for biogas production affect the energy balance, nitrogen balance and GHG-emissions of the farm.