Among renewable
source
s giant reed ha
s attracted a growing intere
st a
s energy crop e
specially in Southern Europe, thank
s to it
s low agronomic input requirement
s. Thi
s paper aimed at evaluating the economic fea
sibility of introduction of giant reed plantation a
s energy crop in the Southern Italy. In particular, an economic and financial analy
si
s wa
s performed by comparing giant reed (both for woodchip and chopped forage production) with tra
ditional crop
s (pluriannual and annual) that are currently cultivated in the
same area,
such a
s wine grape, melon and tomato. Re
sult
s showed the highe
st profitability of giant reed re
spect to other crop
s with current market price
s. In particular, giant reed de
stined to woodchip production denoted the highe
st annual gro
ss margin with a value of 647.10 € ha<
sup>&minu
s;1
sup>, followed by giant reed for
silage production (617.04 € ha<
sup>&minu
s;1
sup>), wine grape (477.52 € ha<
sup>&minu
s;1
sup>), melon (310.00 € ha<
sup>&minu
s;1
sup>) and tomato (280.00 € ha<
sup>&minu
s;1
sup>).
sp0040">However, it should be considered that, as the cultivation of energy crops subtracts inevitably surface to the agricultural land, it would be desirable that the giant reed does not conflict with agri-food production, but valorizes marginal and/or unproductive areas.