within a reasonable time frame. This means that the willow plantation area must be sufficiently large to keep these machines in operation. However, the availability of sufficient specialized machinery in the Netherlands is also an important precondition for potential planters to actually decide to establish plantations. A government investment subsidy could help to resolve this chicken or egg problem in the short term. Machinery cooperatives could also play a role in making specialized machinery available in the Netherlands. 2. Planting material The number of growers and suppliers of planting material is still limited. The most important supplier is SalixEnergi / Lantmännen SW, who have a network of contract growers and distributors in countless European countries. These supply the same Plant Breeder Right-protected clones, but it is advisable to request several quotes as each individual firm is allowed to determine its own price. The size of the order has some influence on the price. Larger orders (e.g. through collective purchasing) can lead to a saving of 150-300 euros per hectare. The number of available clones/species is currently limited to the clones of SalixEnergi / Lantmännen SW and the available indigenous species from osier cultivation. Research is being carried out into new clones in several countries, but this has not yet resulted in new clones in the market. Until today, little experience has been gained in the Netherlands with the application of diverse Dutch osier species in willow energy plantations. The production from these species seems reasonable, but whether their production level is comparable to that of the SalixEnergi / Lantmännen SW clones is open to question. The advantages of the osier species are that they are indigenous, the material is available in the Netherlands and free of Plant Breeder’s Rights. 3. Scale (use of own labour and cooperation) The scale of the willow plantations is an important determinant of the planting and harvesting costs. For smaller areas, on the one hand, it may be attractive to establish and manage the plantation using own labour and standard agricultural and forestry machinery. On the other hand, a larger plantation can lead to cost reductions thanks to the more efficient use of machinery and purchasing advantages. A larger scale can be achieved through cooperation between different planters (farmers, estate owners). Cooperative purchasing of planting material and planting of willow plantations yields clear benefits. Planting material prices fall by one or several cents when larger volumes are purchased. Collective purchasing and collective use of specialized planting and harvesting machinery through a machinery cooperative can produce substantial cost savings for energy plantations. But to achieve this, a large group of forward-looking energy growers must join forces in order to create an energy plantation covering at least several hundreds of hectares. Even on a smaller scale, where several growers can collectively plant several tens of hectares, it may already be attractive to contract a specialized planting machine (and planting team) from abroad. To obtain clearer insight into how the various factors and scale influence the initial planting costs, we looked at three scenarios: 71 Pagina 80
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