Feasibility of double cropping system with camelina and sunflower in Serbia

Abstract

The sustainable production of agricultural commodities, such as vegetable proteins and oils, is currently facing the challenge of developing new cropping strategies more e fficient in terms of water, nutrients, and land, while being able to increase the supply of domestic feedstocks. Double cropping of camelina (Camelina sativa L.), sown in the autumn, with sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) can be proposed as a sustainable way to produce in the same growing season and land, multiple feedstocks for both energy, feed and food uses. A preliminary trial was conducted in Novi Sad (Serbia) during the 2018/19 growing season to test: yield performance, oil content and 1000 seed mass of two early sunflower hybrids (NS Dukat and NS H 7749) sown just after the harvest of two camelina varieties (NS Slatka and NS Zlatka which average yield was 920 kg/ha). Sunflower hybrids were also grown in the monocropping system as control. Both sunflower hybrids had higher seed yields in the monocropping system (+24%), but when considering the total yield of the two crops in the double cropping seed yield resulted slightly higher (+1-3%) than that of sunflower in the monocropping system. Although the average oil content and oil yield of sunflower was 6% and 27% higher in the monocropping system, respectively, the high nutritional value of camelina’s oil, which is rich in omega-3, should be also carefully evaluated.