Title:
Cynara Cardunculus L. Can Be Considered a Promising Perennial Crop for the Mediterranean Region when It Is Cultivated in Marginal Lands
Author(s):
Alexopoulou, E., Christou, M., Panoutsou, C., Papatheohari, Y., Soldatos, P.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L.) is a lignocellulosic perennial crop, native to the Mediterranean regions. Since it is a crop with low water requirements is considered suitable to drought conditions of semi-arid Mediterranean environments. It is described as a non-food crop with many end uses such as: solid biofuels, oil production, paper and pulp, etc. During the last two decades it has been investigated in several EU research projects such as: JOUB 0030.E, AIR CT93 1089, ENK CT2001 00524, BIOCARD, 4FCROPS, Crops2Industry, etc. Cardoon has been proposed as appropriate non-food crops for cultivating in marginal lands. The question is the yields that can be obtained when cardoon cultivating in marginal lands can make the cultivation to be economically viable. In central Greece cardoon had been cultivated the last two decades in both typical agricultural lands and marginal lands. When cardoon cultivated in typical agricultural lands the dry matter yields varied from 15 to 33 t/ha, while in marginal lands the yields varied from 3 to 17 t/ha. It should be pointed out that in marginal lands that dry matter yields were higher than 10t/ha only in two growing seasons. In 4FCROPS project that cardoon was considered as a promising future non-food crop with multi uses. It was also found that when the dry matter yields were 14 t/ha (for a period of 15 years) cultivation of cardoon could be economic viable taking under consideration that the selling price is 30 Euros per tone. In this case the farmers can have a profit of 93 Euros/ha.
Keywords:
cardoon, biomass yields, mediterranean region, marginal lands
Topic:
Biomass Resources
Subtopic:
Energy crops (session 5)
Event:
19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
VP1.3.77
Pages:
778 - 781
ISBN-13:
978-88-89407-55-4
ISBN-10:
88-89407-55-7
Paper DOI:
10.5071/19thEUBCE2011-VP1.3.77
Price:
FREE
