CAMELINA CRAMBE: UNDERUTILIZED OIL CROPS WITH NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR EUROPE

摘要

The on-going EU-funded project ‘COSMOS - Camelina & crambe Oil crops as Sources for MediumchainrnOils for Specialty oleochemicals’ aims to turn two underutilized crops, camelina and crambe, into profitable,rnsustainable, multipurpose, non-GMO European oil crops for the production of oleochemicals. These crops do notrncompete with food crops in terms of agricultural lands as they can grow on less fertile soils, under low inputs (water,rnnitrogen, pesticides etc.). Presently, the cultivation of these oil crops is not at a commercial scale in Europe, while thernmajority of published data on camelina derived from trials performed mainly in the USA. From preliminary researchrnin previous and on-going projects (ICON, EUROBIOREF, ITAKA, COSMOS) these crops emerged as idealrncandidates for larger-scale development in Europe. Several field trials comparing a high number of genotypes werernestablished across Europe (Greece, Italy, Poland and The Netherlands) aiming at identifying the most promising onesrnin terms of seed and oil yields and their quality. From the first results crambe and camelina showed good adaptationrnin all field trials. Camelina showed better adaptability to differentiate environments demonstrating more stable yieldsrnthan crambe across locations. In northern environments (i.e., Poland and north Italy) crambe yield was double than inrnGreece; for southern environments, characterized by mild winter, the anticipation of sowing to fall/winter could be arnfeasible option to increase crambe yields.