Research and innovation in olilseed industrial crops
The economic situation of the area is characterized by a deep economic crisis, especially in the agricultural sector. Moreover the youth and female unemployment feeds a diffused social malaise. Among the solutions identified by the regional and EU programs there is the diversification of agricultural activities. The cultivation of oleaginous crops is one of the possible ways to produce oils to be used as fuels or in the chemical industry and to sypply extraction panels both for energy cogeneration and as soil amendments or bioinsecticide.
The cultivation of oilseeds is one of the possible paths of diversification of agricultural activities as plants provide oils for use as fuels or in the chemical industry and provide extraction panels that can be used for both cogeneration both as soil improvers with repellent or toxic action towards the root parasites. The castor has some characteristics of drought resistance and quality of the oil and its derivatives that make it a high potential crop for our environments and allows the agricultural sector to play an important role both as a supplier of energy and environmental protection.
The territorial context in which the companies involved in the project are located, is characterized by common problems: low levels of profitability of the agricultural sector, risk of abandonment of agricultural activity in less productive and marginal land with significant negative effects on hydrogeological protection and the landscape, increasing youth and female unemployment, high degree of marginalisation of holdings, deficiencies in infrastructure and services. One of the solutions also identified by regional and Community programmes to increase the profitability of agricultural enterprises, create new jobs and safeguard the natural environment and biodiversity, can be represented by the diversification of business activities. The diversification of agricultural activities towards non-food production would make it possible to exploit crops that, on the one hand, allow the use of marginal land and, on the other, can find new market spaces. The cultivation of oilseeds is one of the possible ways as these plants provide oils for use as fuels or in the chemical industry and, at the same time, they provide extraction panels that can be used both for energy cogeneration and as soil improvers with repellent or toxic action against root pests.
Innovation in the process. The leader, together with partners including in particular the University of Catania, has carried out, for several years, research and tests of cultivation and use of castor oil, identifying the Tunisian variety as the most productive. This project proposal aims to transfer knowledge and technology to the Capofile, the University and the CNR. In particular, demonstration fields will be created on farms where innovative cultivation techniques will be adopted including the use of the substrate Niura (patent of the leader), a copolymer mixed with pumice, peat and ground laves, highly hygroscopic, which will contribute to the reduction of water consumption. In addition, the pressing of the seeds collected with an innovative machine will be carried out in order to obtain oil to be used in agricultural machinery and extraction panels to be used as a matrix for cogeneration and soil improver with bioinsecticide function. The collection will also be carried out through the use of an innovative harvesting tool that will facilitate manual harvesting.
Product innovation. The following applications of oil and by-products will be tested in the partner companies of the project: use of castor oil, extraction cake and crop residues for cogeneration, use of recon oil as biofuel, use of castor oil as a bioinsecticide, cake and crop residues as a soil improver and/or bioinsecticide.
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