High rates of worldwide consumption of non-renewable fossil fuel and dedicated biomass crops for biofuels that may lead to supply shortages and to a limitation in biomass-derived fuels production and development, pose a great challenge to provide enough raw industrial materials in a sustainable way.

In order to acquire high production of bioenergy crops, the goal for the selection of new bioenergy crops in China is to grow on marginal land not suited for food crops, thus removing competition between the uses of land for food and fuel production. Screening resistant bioenergy crop species in the arid area of North-West China is not only a potential resource of bioenergy plants, but also for soil and water conservation and feedstuff in China. Importantly, the resources use efficiency and crop productivity can be enhanced by intercropping. Therefore, intercropping of bioenergy plants and other plants is an effective strategy for high production of bioenergy plants. The effective application of intercropping technology provides a potential pathway for bioenergy plants production by improving bioenergy crop resistance to environmental stress and resources use efficiency in marginal lands. It is suggested that fine-tuning cropping patterns at different scales from individual to agroecosystem levels will be more economically and environmentally sustainable as a bioenergy feedstock and food security in China.