The Argent project aims to promote a new multipurpose oil crop, Camelina, as valuable source for animal feeding. The actual shortage in the domestic production of vegetable proteins and oils for food/feed applications is leading Europe toward a dramatic crisis in relation to the strict dependence on import. From the agronomic point of view, camelina is characterized by low agricultural input requirements, resistance to common pests & diseases, and tolerance to different abiotic stresses. The wide environmental adaptability confers an enormous advantage to camelina, over other emerging oilseed crops, for the inclusion into traditional cropping systems, primarily based on cereals. All this, together with the increasing need of European farmers for crop diversification, paves the way to the introduction of the new multipurpose oil crop, Camelina, sourcing valuable feedstock for animal feeding.
Synergies
Agronomic and genetic improvement of Camelina for sustainable poultry feeding and healthy food products
New-C-Land – Added value of cross-border valorisation of marginal land in support of a bio-based economy
Space in the border regions of Flanders, Wallonia and France is scarce. However, many parcels remain unused at the moment, for example due to environmental pollution.The respective (regional) governments are currently strongly committed to the identification and redevelopment of these often abandoned, underutilized and neglected sites. New-C-Land has the ambition to identify marginal land in the regions concerned with the best possibilities for biomass valorisation (non-food), bring landowners and biomass customers into contact in order to encourage the development of industrial value chains and eliminate practical and organisational bottlenecks in order to initiate biomass projects. The project will have a direct impact on companies in the border regions of Flanders, Wallonia and France by tackling crucial issues from the bottom up, which companies cannot solve on their own. In the long term, the project will stimulate the trans-regional bio-based economy through the sustainable use of local resources produced on marginal land.
PANACEA Network – Non Food Crops for a EU Bioeconomy
PANACEA Network aims at the dissemination of near to practice applicable cases of Non-food Crops and at the cooperation between research, industry and farming community, in order to increase the contribution of Non-food Crops to the European Bio-economy Strategy. Non-food crops (NFC) are those that do not enter the food chains and are used to produce a wide range of bio-based products including polymers, lubricants, construction materials, pharmaceuticals, as well as bioenergy and fuels. As a Thematic Network on Non-food Crops (NFC), PANACEA will collect existing but insufficiently used scientific knowledge and best practices, making it ready to be used by practitioners through accessible and understandable materials, resources and tools that will enrich the EIP-AGRI database with concrete solutions that farmers can easily implement.