Objective
Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is a potentially high yielding non-food crop that could meet EU market requirements for energy, paper pulp production and construction of building materials. It has the advantage of being a native of south-eastern Europe and therefore naturally adapted to EU agro-climatic conditions. Certain unimproved populations achieved dry matter yields up to 40 tons/ha. Giant reed is also one of the most cost effective crop, environmentally friendly and presents large prospect by selection and improvement, to become the champion of biomass crops.
However, giant reed has never been domesticated because of the absence of any market.
The ultimate objective of the proposed project is the introduction of giant reed, a high-yielding, non-food plant, into EU agriculture.
The specific objectives of the proposed project are:
* To determine the suitability of giant reed as a new non-food crop (for energy, paper and construction of building materials) within EU agriculture by evaluating a wide range of native populations in Greece and Italy. *To establish the limitations to production in the EU by quantifying and biomass productivity of selected populations in Northern and Western EU environmental conditions (Germany, UK, France, Spain).
* To develop a growth and biomass productivity model for giant reed by determining growth, biomass yields and quality under contrasting EU conditions (with particular emphasis on the Mediterranean basin but in comparison with northern and western regions).
* To determine the most successful and cost-effective methods of establishment by evaluation of various propagation techniques (micropropagation, rhizomes, stem cuttings).
* To identify the most appropriate agronomic practices for maximizing biomass yields by assessing the effects of irrigation and nitrogen fertilization on growth and biomass productivity.
* To assess environmental impacts (beneficial or detrimental) of giant reed insertion into the agriculture practice (nitrate leaching, water economy,. biofiltering capacity of sewage effluents).
* To determine energy potential and fuel quality as well as the pulp and paper characteristics.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology civil engineering water engineering irrigation
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- agricultural sciences agricultural biotechnology agricultural genetics plant cloning
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
19009 PIKERMI ATHENS
Greece
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