**7. Opportunities and economic benefits of tropical pastures**

Biomass energy is currently receiving considerable attention in response to climate change and ever-increasing global energy demand [108–111] and tropical pastures would appear to have potential for the production of biofuels. For example, Clifton-Brown et al. [40], suggested that *Miscanthus* which is known for its high biomass production has value as a potential biofuel and the area over which it grows could therefore be expanded significantly throughout Europe. *Miscanthus* is grown in many European countries such as Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In France for instance, *Miscanthus* cultivation has increased since the first plantation in 2006 [112]. The EU Biofuel directive promotes the expansion of biofuels and *Miscanthus* particularly as a biomass energy source [113]. Hence, growing biomass energy crops (mainly tropical perennial grasses) specially in Europe is becoming common and expanding to consider for potential soil carbon storage and this needs to be explored further even in other parts of the world and using other different potential grasses.

### **8. Conclusion**

Tropical pastures are potential candidates to contribute to climate change mitigation efforts through additional SOC storage due to their high biomass production,

### *Botany - Recent Advances and Applications*

fast growth rates, and deep root systems. Using tropical grasses has also a low cost of implementation to rehabilitate degraded lands and improve soil productivity through increasing SOC. The existing literature on tropical grasses potential for soil carbon sequestration provides positive indications that significant soil carbon storage is possible. However, a number of further investigations are required to provide a sound basis on which management decisions involving tropical grasses can be made. We therefore recommend the following priority research actions to provide the required information:


*Soil Carbon Storage Potential of Tropical Grasses: A Review DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97835*
