CAMELINA (Camelina sativa) - AN ATTRACTIVE NEW OIL CROP FOR EUROPE AND CANADA

Camelina [Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz] is considered a relatively new oilseed Brassica in both Europe and North America, even though its history as a crop dates back to the Bronze Age. Almost forgotten during the worldwide expansion of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), camelina has recently received increasing interest from both the scientific community and bio-based industries around the world. The main attractive features of camelina are: drought and frost tolerance, disease and pest resistance, a unique seed oil composition with high levels of n-3 fatty acids, considerably high seed oil content, and satisfactory seed yields, in particular under low input management and in limiting environments. Within the EU project COSMOS (Camelina and crambe Oil crops as Sources of Medium-chain Oils for Specialty oleochemicals), the agronomic performance of camelina is being evaluated in a wide range of environments in Europe and, through a collaboration with Linnaeus Plant Sciences (LPS), also in Canada. A selection of improved genotypes (n=9) was tested by COSMOS partners at 4 different locations in Europe (Greece, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands) and 6 locations across Canada, covering a wide variety of soil types (from fertile clay to poor sandy) and climatic conditions (from continental cold and wet to south Mediterranean arid and continental semi-arid, with annual average precipitation ranging from less than 400 to about 800 mm). Screening trials were set up in completely randomized blocks with three or four replicates in two consecutive growing seasons (2015 and 2016) in all locations. Sowing time was optimized for each location according to the different climatic conditions. Surveyed parameters during crop development and at harvest were similar to allow for easy comparison across locations (i.e., rate of emergence, days to flowering and maturity, height at maturity, plant density at harvest, seed yield, thousand seed weight, seed oil and protein content, fatty acid profile). Camelina proved to be a highly adaptable species, reaching seed yields of ~ 1 Mg DM ha-1 even under the most limiting conditions (southern Greece). Growing conditions characterized by mild temperatures and adequate rainfall (Vanguard, Western Canada) resulted in seed yields of close to 2.8 Mg DM ha-1 in 2015. Interestingly, the length of the growing cycle varied greatly across different locations (80-110 d), but the cumulative GDD (growing degree day), values were much more stable. The performance evaluations across locations in 2015 showed that while line 13CS0787-09 reached the highest yields at the majority of sites in Europe (Italy, Greece, and Netherlands), line 13CS0787-08, which possesses up to 50% larger seed, compared to the mean of all other test entries, demonstrated high yield stability across locations in both Europe and Canada. These results suggest geographic adaptation of genotypes to some extend; however, further confirmation from the second season (2016 still ongoing) is necessary. Multi-location trials across Europe and Canada over two consecutive growing seasons serve to identify the best performing varieties in each environment which will allow defining a customized breeding program for Europe and Canada in order to establish camelina as a viable alternative in typical crop rotations.