Objective
Crambe is a 'new' spring oil crop, suitable for diversification, which was first investigated in national and EU programmes (ECLAIR nø 0046 and Concerted Action AIR3 CT 2480). Seeds can be easily processed using conventional crushing and solvent extraction techniques, yielding oil and proteinic meal. The seed contains about 35% oil, which has a fatty acid composition of ca. 60 % erucic acid. This fatty acid is also found in High Erucic Acid Rape (HEAR) oil, although at lower concentration (ca. 45%). However, high and low erucic acid oil seed rape are cross fertile, and therefore the composition of seeds from neighbouring fields cannot be guaranteed. Thus the two rape genotypes cannot be cultivated in the same area. Crambe does not cross pollinate with rape and thus it can be cultivated in the same areas (North and Atlantic Europe). Further more, due to its Mediterranean origin, crambe is also well adapted to marginal land areas with mild winters and hot and dry summers. Cold tolerance would increase the locations where crambe can be successfully cultivated and may enable it to be grown as an overwintering crop. The use of erucic acid in lipochemistry is well established and an increasing market for this compound already exists. Recent experiments, carried out during the Concerted Action in co-operation with some private companies, showed that crambe oil can effectively replace mineral oil in many mechanical industry processes, viz. Metal working, lubrication, quenching, cutting, etc.
The proteinic meal contains about 6% of glucosinolates, which during processing, are hydrolysed into antinutritional compounds which reduce the nutritional value of meal for animal feed. During the Concerted Action, we developed a detoxification method, but in the longer term, the best solution will be to lower the gls content by breeding or by technology. The latter approach has been carried out in the BOP programme (FAIR CT 95-0260), where gls are isolated and used as biocidal compounds.
Therefore, the outlets for crambe are well established. In addition, it has already been demonstrated that crambe can be cultivated across Europe from the Baltic Sea to southern Italy with seed yields that can reach 3t/ha, however it has also be shown that yields are often much lower. Thus, it is clear that primary production is the weak link in the development of crambe as an industrial crop.
Therefore, the aim of dicra programme (Diversification with crambe; an industrial oil crop) will be focused on breeding and agrophysiology in order
i) to provide high and stable yields,
ii) to grow the crop using environmental friendly techniques
iii) to produce seeds and oil suitable for specific industrial uses. The programme will be divided into 3 tasks:
Task 1, 'breeding' will identify and select genotypes with desirable agronomic characters (high oil content, cold tolerance, disease resistance, low gls content) within the gene pool of C.abyssinica C. Hispanica and C. Rilirormis. Several interspecific crosses have already been made. The dihaploid technique will also be used to create greater diversity. Variation will be also determine in 200 cmmbe lines obtained from gamma ray mutations. The improved and new genotypes will then be tested though an EU pedoclimatic network. All this breeding work relies exclusively on classical techniques.
Task 2, 'agrophysiology' will investigate the best environmental friendly techniques to grow crambe paying a particular attention to nitrogen and sulphur fertilisation and weed control. It will also be address improving seed germination which, currently, reduces the plant establishment.
Task 3, 'quality control' will help to identify the traits related to cold tolerance by biochemical analysis (root carbohydrate content, amino acid, dehydrins and hormone contents...). The same laboratory will make analyses (oil, fatty acids, gls, proteins) of samples collected from trials of all partners.
The programme includes two research institutes, three universities and two enterprises located from North to South EU. The programme fits with the Community Agricultural Policy since it is dedicated to a 'new' crop that will not generate food surpluses. In addition, it is aimed to produce a renewable environmentally benign oil for replacing polluting petroleum oil products. Thus it will contribute to the competitiveness of EU since, most industrial vegetable oils currently sold in the EU market are produced in the US (including crambe oil).
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.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agronomy plant protection
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds oilseeds
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture industrial crops
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry animal feed
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Coordinator
21800 QUETIGNY
France
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