Carinata and Camelina, two minor Brassicaceae with great potential for the European bioeconomy

Abstract

The European bioeconomy is urgently looking for new sustainable and domestically grown feedstocks able to feed different types of end-uses, both food and non-food. The actual European environmental and agricultural policies are pushing for the choice of crops able to meet both low carbon footprint, high impact on biodiversity and satisfactory revenues for farmers. All this complicated situation is further exacerbated by the effects of climate change, which is strongly and negatively impacting many stable European cash crops. In this context the CARINA “CARinata and CamelINA to boost the sustainable diversification in EU farming systems” project, which has been funded by the Horizon Europe framework program with over 8M€ began in November 2022. It addresses all the above-mentioned challenges through the introduction of two novel oilseed Brassicaceae, i.e., carinata (B. carinata) and camelina (Camelina sativa), which have been identified as suitable for different European pedo-climates.