Across Europe many different biomass crops are being assessed for their viability and commercial value. One important aspect of this assessment is the potential for the crop to suffer infectious diseases and be colonised by destructive invertebrates. Organisms that have significant potential to reduce yields of short rotation wood crops (willow and poplar) are well known and studied. Chemical treatments exist to mitigate damage and crop varieties are known which exhibit resistance to certain pests. In addition, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies exit to combat the yield loss without the necessity to employ environmentally unsustainable control methods.

Many grass energy crops have not undergone selection procedures to identify genotypes best suited to often non-native climates. Despite this, many have shown a remarkable lock of pests and diseases when planted in non-native environments. Largely because of this apparent resistance to infection and infestation comparatively little work has been done to assess the potential for damage to many non-wood biomass crop yields. Under future scenarios, where non-wood biomass crops replace a large portion of existing agricultural land use across Europe the potential is there for new and known infection and infestation to increase.