TARGETED CULTIVATION OF THE ENERGY PLANTS IN CONDITIONS OF THE SLOVAK REGIONS

The aim of this paper is to analyse the targeted cultivation possibilities of energy plants in Slovakia and to evaluate the appropriateness of targeted cultivation of energy plants Populus and energy grass Miscanthus. In Slovakia, is used the classification system of regions according territorial statistical units - NUTS (NUTS III - 8 regions). The highest potential for the cultivation of energy plants (soil quality group 5-9) is in Prešov (99.95%), Žilina (99.89%) and Košice (99.51) region. The research was conducted at the research locality of the energy plants in Kolíňany (Nitra region). We studied four Italian varieties of gray poplar (Populus × canescens) (Monviso, Pegaso, AF-2 and Sirio) and two genotypes of energy grass Miscanthus (Miscantus × giganteus (Greef et Deuter, 1993) and Miscanthus sinensis (Tatai)). Production of Populus varieties after the first growing cycle (2009-2012), exceeding the value of the economic threshold was 67.42 t ha-1 (AF-2) to 87.16 t ha-1 (Monviso). Both genotypes of Miscanthus produce an economically interesting production of dry mass for the 4 year period (2010-2013) (Miscantus × giganteus (Greef et Deuter) 88.97 t ha-1 and Miscanthus sinensis (Tatai) 77.80 t ha-1 ). Cultivation of the energy plants permits to farm on unused land in the regions and produce biomass for energy use at the local level.