FARMERS are being offered millions of pounds worth of grants in an effort to boost production of biomass to meet renewable energy targets.

Food and Farming minister Larry Whitty unveiled the £3.5million UK-wide Bio-Energy Infrastructure Scheme on Friday, declaring biomass organic matter used as fuel - to be of huge benefit for combating climate change, boosting farm diversification and creating rural jobs.

Grants will be available to help harvest, store, process and supply biomass for energy production.

The Government has also commissioned a task force led by the ex-president of the National Farmers' Union Sir Ben Gill. The group will conduct a one-year study into overcoming the barriers to establish confidence in the industry.

It is hoped that the investment and study will spur Britain's bid to generate large amounts of electricity by burning biomass like trees, plants and organic waste. By 2010, 10 per cent of UK electricity is supposed to come from renewable energy sources with an aspiration to double that to 20 per cent by 2020.

In Cumbria, many areas are suitable for growing biomass crops like fast-growing willow and there are signs that the county's farmers are considering it as a diversification crop.

Willow specialist Walter Lloyd of Lakeland Willows at Staveley-in-Cartmel supplies cuttings of 100 different willow varieties for farmers, gardeners, basket weavers and artists.

"There is certainly more and more interest from farmers," he said. "Most of my inquiries come from farmers who want to try it out. Usually they have a patch of land that isn't doing anything because it's a bit wet."

But any biomass boom for Cumbria still appears to be some way off. Willow is not yet grown commercially as a biomass crop even though grants have been available for some time because there is still no local market for it.

A pioneering gasification plant in Yorkshire closed after only eight days in operation in 2002 because of technical problems converting willow wood chips into the gas which was to fuel a turbine generator. Its demise left in the lurch many farmers who had planted 1,500 hectares of willow to sell to the new operation.

Similarly, a biomass electricity station planned for Carlisle was scrapped because of high transport costs involved in collecting and shipping the timber required for converting into the high-quality oil that was to generate the power.

However, Elizabeth Bruce of the Countryside Agency funded Claren project, which is promoting renewables in Cumbria and Lancashire, believes there is a bright future for biomass energy in the region although for more small-scale projects that generate heat and not electricity for the national grid.

Together with the Forestry Commission, Claren is promoting super-efficient wood boilers that burn chipped wood and offer an economical use for low grade timber. The boilers are 90 per cent efficient and emit nothing more than steam compared to an open fire, which is only 20 per cent efficient. Mrs Bruce said there had been a lot of interest from farmers eager to use them as a cheap and green way to make best use of woodlands and heat their own homes, outbuildings and holiday cottages.

Claren is also helping to get community-based projects off the ground to generate local jobs as well as heat. At the moment all of these are in the north of the county, including a project near Cockermouth where a local co-operative is hoping to build its very own community power station fueled by wood and organic waste which will sell heat to homes.

"Out of all the counties Cumbria's probably got the highest potential for using biomass because of its rural nature and the landscape issues. It has real potential but it takes time to get it going we are just at the brink of it all."

l For more information about biomass grants see www.defra.gov.uk/industrialcrops or for details about Claren see www.claren.org.uk