EUBCE 2024 - Alessandra PICCITTO - Breeding and Selection of a Castor Genotype to Exploit in the Mediterranean Area

Breeding and Selection of a Castor Genotype to Exploit in the Mediterranean Area

Short Introductive summary

The growing industrialization, the demographic growth and the climate crisis have imposed the need to obtain an energy diversification aimed at guarantee the sustainability by using raw materials, which can have a less impact on the environment. In this context, Castor bean (Ricinus communis L.), being an oilseed crop, well adapted to the Mediterranean basin, easy to grow and with limit agronomic demands, results as one of the best candidate to fit the international purposes of limiting the use of fossil fuels because of its high oil content, which can be used for the production of bioenergy . Thus, keeping in mind its huge potential, the evaluation of genotypes with enhanced agronomic traits in the Mediterranean area is an interesting topic to evaluate. Therefore, this research aims to study the breeding of a genotype for the Mediterranean that has improved morphological and qualitative-quantitative traits, a higher seed yield and oil content.

V. Cafaro, Università di Catania, San Giovanni la Punta, ITALY
A. Piccitto, Università di Catania, ITALY
S. Calcagno, Università di Catania, ITALY
V. Copani, Università di Catania, ITALY
C. Patanè, CNR-IBE, ITALY
G. Testa, Università di Catania, ITALY
S.L. Cosentino, Università di Catania, ITALY