Agricultural lands can provide nearly 1 billion dry tons of sustainably collectable biomass and continue to meet food,
feed and export demands. This estimate includes 446 million dry tons of crop residues, 377 million dry tons of
perennial crops, 87 million dry tons of grains used for biofuels, and 87 million dry tons of animal manures, process
residues, and other residues generated in the consumption food products. The perennial crops are crops dedicated
primarily for bioenergy and biobased products and will likely include a combination of grasses and woody crops.
Providing this level of biomass will require increasing yields of corn, wheat, and other small grains by 50 percent;
doubling residue-to-grain ratios for soybeans; developing much more efficient residue harvesting equipment;
managing active cropland with no-till cultivation; growing perennial crops whose output is primarily dedicated for
bioenergy purposes on 55 million acres of cropland, idle cropland, and cropland pasture; using animal manure in
excess of what can be applied on-farm for soil improvement for bioenergy; and using a larger fraction of other
secondary and tertiary residues for bioenergy.
