Marginal land near the A4104 road in Great Britain.
Marginal land is land that is of little agricultural or developmental value because crops produced from the area would be worth less than any rent paid for access to the area.[1] Although the term marginal is often used in a subjective sense for less-than-ideal lands, it is fundamentally an economic term[2] that is defined by the local economic context. Thus what constitutes marginal land varies both with location and over time: for example, "a soil profile with a set of specific biophysical characteristics reported as “marginal” in the US corn belt may be one of the better soils available in another context".[3] Changes in product values – such as the ethanol-demand induced spike in corn prices – can result in formerly marginal lands becoming profitable.[3]
Marginal lands can therefore be more difficult to delineate as compared to "abandoned crop lands" which reflect more clearly definable landowner-initiated land use changes.[4]
Land may be marginal for a number of reasons, including poor water supply, poor soil quality, pollution from previous industrial activities, terrain challenges such as excessive slope, or excessive distance from means of transportation.[5]
switchgrass production on marginal land. Experimental plots being mowed for harvest at Cornell University in November 2016. The mixed vegetation strip to the right of the tractor shows the lower productivity of the fallow grassland that covered the site prior to planting of switchgrass in 2011.
Marginal land is not entirely useless for human purposes. For example, certain breeds of free-roaming livestock, such as the English Leicester sheep, are able to forage on such land. There are also some plants that can be grown in land that would be considered marginal for most agricultural uses. For example, Cucurbita foetidissima, the buffalo gourd, is well adapted to marginal agricultural lands such as sandy loam soils which have to be well-drained.[6][7] Land that is marginal for conventional row-crop production is often well-suited to perennial crops,[8] including low-input crops grown as bioenergy or bioproduct feedstocks such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), shrub willow (Salix spp.), and giant miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus), allowing production of these crops without inducing competition for prime farmlands.
^Baumol, William, Alan Blinder, Economics: Principles and Policy (2011), p. 409.
^Peterson, GM; Galbraith, J (1932). "The concept of marginal land". Journal of Farm Economics. 14 (2): 295–310. doi:10.2307/1230112. JSTOR 1230112.
^ abRichards, BK; Stoof, CR; Cary, IJ; Woodbury, PB (2014). "Reporting on marginal lands for bioenergy feedstock production – a modest proposal". BioEnergy Research. 7 (3): 1060–1062. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.667.4930. doi:10.1007/s12155-014-9408-x. S2CID 17737366.
^Baxter, Ryan E., Kirby E. Calvert. (2017). Estimating Available Abandoned Cropland in the United States: Possibilities for Energy Crop Production Annals of the American Association of Geographers 107(5)1162-1178. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1298985.
^David Pimentel, Global Economic and Environmental Aspects of Biofuels (2012), p. 92.
^Bemis, J. (1975). Underexploited Tropical Plants with Promising Economic Value. National Research Council. pp. 94–99. ISBN 978-0-89499-186-8.
^Nelson, J.; Scheerens, J.; Bucks, D.; Berry, J. (1989). "Irrigation Effects on Water Use, and Production of Tap Roots and Starch of Buffalo Gourd". Agronomy Journal. 81 (3): 439–442. doi:10.2134/agronj1989.00021962008100030008x.
^Stoof, CR; Richards, BK; Woodbury, PB (2015). "Untapped potential: Opportunities and challenges for sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in New York and the Northeast USA". BioEnergy Research. 8 (2): 482–501. doi:10.1007/s12155-014-9515-8. S2CID 14346783.
Marginalland is land that is of little agricultural or developmental value because crops produced from the area would be worth less than any rent paid...
in 2001 Marginal (manga) El Marginal, Argentine TV series Marginal seat or marginal constituency or marginal, in politics MarginalismMarginal analysis...
bamboo (Phyllostachys bambusoides). This rapid growth and tolerance for marginalland, make bamboo a good candidate for afforestation, carbon sequestration...
pumping engines in the 15th century permitted drainage of some of the marginalland, but the final drainage of the lake had to await the design of large...
This is a list of seas of the World Ocean, including marginal seas, areas of water, various gulfs, bights, bays, and straits. In many cases it is a matter...
In economics, diminishing returns are the decrease in marginal (incremental) output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production...
including increased soil water penetration, increases to productivity on marginalland that has since become and soil temperature moderation. Andrade, Dayana;...
marginalland has been put under cultivation to grow samphire, sea blite, and sea aster; these plants yield a higher profit than potatoes. The land is...
Rural Land Register (RLR) is a database of maps showing the ownership of all agricultural land in the England, along with woodland and marginalland on which...
Desert". It was also used to justify the expansion of wheat growing on marginalland in South Australia during the same period. According to the theory,...
is now used to grow corn. It is also possible or probable that some marginalland has been converted or returned to agricultural use. That may have negative...
Hydrography, the measurement of physical characteristics of waters and marginalland Hydrographics (printing), a printing technique for three-dimensional...
"The Moment of Eclipse", "Swastika!", "Sober Noises of Morning in a MarginalLand" (novelette), "Judas Danced", "Still Trajectories", "Another Little...
economic output. For third world countries, biodiesel sources that use marginalland could make more sense; e.g., pongam oiltree nuts grown along roads or...
Minister for Forests, Tavaiqia negotiated with landowners to lease marginalland with little use for any agricultural development to the Fiji Pine Commission...
climates in Ethiopia and Kenya. Because bamboo can grow on otherwise marginalland, bamboo can be profitably cultivated in many degraded lands. Moreover...
Mozambique and Tanzania. "It does grow on marginalland, but if you use marginalland you'll get marginal yields," he said. Sun Biofuels, after failing...
Agriculture Act, the original idea was for the government to buy back sub-marginalland that was homesteaded in the late 1800s. This would both extend pastures...
turn pushed many small-scale farmers on to ever more marginalland, as the better quality land was consolidated into larger farms. The "Green Revolution"...
differences in fertility of land. The surplus that arises due to difference between the marginal and intra-marginalland is the differential rent. It...
and Peter Davies. The aim of Nattergal is to acquire agriculturally marginalland on which to facilitate nature recovery at scale using rewilding, based...
There are several methods used to present a tax rate: statutory, average, marginal, flat, and effective. These rates can also be presented using different...
soils through symbiotic nitrogen fixation. The crop is cultivated on marginalland by resource-poor farmers, who commonly grow traditional medium- and...
important new development form as automobile ownership skyrockets and marginalland is bulldozed for development. For example, the outskirts of Bangalore...
is now used to grow corn. It is also possible or probable that some marginalland has been converted or returned to agricultural use. That may have negative...
make the fuels either grow on arable land but are byproducts of the main crop, or they are grown on marginalland. Waste from industry, agriculture, forestry...
Global Information
