Date: Thursday, 27 June 2024
Time: 11:45 - 12:45 CEST
Session code 1DV.4
Innovative biomass production for energy integrated into traditional agri-forestry systems
Strip-Intercropping of Non-Food Crops on Marginal Land: Preliminary Results from The MIDAS Project
Short Introductive summary
New biomass sources need to be found which have low or no Indirect land Use (iLUC) effects. One of the options to avoid ILUC is growing non-food crops on marginal, abandoned and degraded land. . In this scenario, the MIDAS project (Marginal agricultural land and climate-resilient and biodiversity-friendly industrial crops for innovative bio-based value chains) was funded by the EC, involving 29 partners. Two different cropping systems have been selected as the most feasible to source low iLUC feedstock from marginal land: i) strip intercropping with annual and herbaceous perennial species, ii) agroforesty systems including annual and woody species. In particular, UNIBO is carrying out researches on the first system. At this scope a large field trial of about 1 ha has been established in January 2023 in a field characterized by a sand content 65% and a slope ranging from 8 to 15% depending on the part of the field. Three annual crops, namely: crambe (Crambe abyssinica), industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa), and safflower (Carthamus tictorius), have been planted in large replicated strips , and intercropped with miscanthus.
Presenter
Andrea PARENTI
University of Bologna, DISTAL Dpt.
Presenter's biography
I got a PhD in 2020 with the following thesis title 'Modelling new sustainable cropping systems for advanced biofuel production' Agronomist and post-doc researcher at the Depertment of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Bologna.
Biographies and Short introductive summaries are supplied directly by presenters and are published here unedited
Co-authors:
A. Ferreira, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, ITALY
L. Samuil Mordos, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, ITALY
E. Facciolla, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, ITALY
A. Monti, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, ITALY
A. Parenti, University of Bologna, ITALY
Session reference: 1DV.4.6