Competition for Land between Food, Bioenergy and Conservation

Increased future demands for food, fiber and fuels from biomass can only be met if the available land and water resources on a global scale are used and managed as efficiently as possible. The main routes for making the global agricultural system more productive are through intensification and technological change on currently used agricultural land, land expansion into currently non-agricultural areas, and international trade in agricultural commodities and processed goods. In order to analyze the trade-offs and synergies between these options, the authors have developed the global bio-economic model MAgPIE with a special focus on spatially explicit land and water constraints as well as technological change in agricultural production.