Economic assessment of landowners' willingness to supply energy crops on marginal lands in the northeastern of the United States

A major critique of large scale biomass production is the land competition between food and energy crops. A commonly suggested solution is to limit energy crop production to marginal lands. Physical marginality is often used when discussing marginal lands. However, as important is the socioeconomic marginality. This research fills this gap by evaluating willingness to supply bioenergy crops for landowners who have marginal lands. We conducted contingent valuation surveys at study sites with three model crops: switchgrass, miscanthus and willow. Random utility theory is applied to evaluate factors influencing decision maker's choice to plant energy crops. The results indicate that landowners who own marginal lands are more likely to plant energy crops and they require a lower willingness to accept price compared with landowners who do not have marginal lands. At the same time, we noticed that landowners are unfamiliar with these new crops. Economic concerns are the top reasons preventing them from planting energy crops. •Landowners who own marginal lands are more likely to supply energy crops and required a lower WTA price.•Switchgrass is the crop that landowners are most familiar with and likely to adopt.•Land use for non-production activities can compete with bioenergy crop plantations for marginal lands.