What is Switchgrass?

Switchgrass is a native of North America where it occurs naturally from 55ยบ N latitude to deep into Mexico, mostly as a prairie grass. In North America it has long been used for soil conservation and as a fodder crop. Both in America and Europe it can be found as an ornamental plant. The grass is also found in South America and Africa where it is used as a forage crop. Switchgrass is a perennial C4 grass propagated by seed that can be established at low cost and risc and requires very low inputs while giving high biomass yields even on marginal soils. Since the early 1990s the crop has been developed as a model herbaceous energy crop for ethanol and electricity production in the USA and in Canada and it is also being considered as a paper pulp production feedstock.

Projects

Read more about the various research projects that are funded by the European Union, Agency NL and other organizations.

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Publications

On this page you can find a list of links and downloadable journal articles, conference papers and presentations on switchgrass.

Publications