Oilseed Brassica species for fuel production in Mediterranean environments: first field results and technical evaluations.

Energy is a major constraint of developed and under-development countries, and the sustainable production of biofuels for use in industrial and domestic sectors has been implemented successfully in many parts of the world. For a number of reasons, some Brassica species, such as B. napus, B. juncea or B. carinata, seem especially interesting as biofuel crops for Mediterranean environments, and many studies and researches have been carried out in order to ensure a successful introduction of them inside the current farming systems. In this work we report the first results of the field trials performed in 2006/07 in the experimental farm “Sparacia” (Cammarata – AG – Sicily), representative of the semi-arid Mediterranean environments, on some accessions of B.napus var. oleifera and B. carinata. The research was not only aimed to point out some aspects of the cropping technique to be applied to such crops into these special environments, but also to evaluate the effects eventually exerted by the selected agronomic variables on the technical aspects of the obtained biofuel.