D4.5 – Report on "Comparative studies on selected industrial crops grown on large scale fields on marginal land"

The scope of the Task 4.4 was to gain new insights into industrial crops (camelina, crambe, safflower, castor, switchgrass, miscanthus, tall wheatgrass, willow, poplar and Siberian elm) grown at farm-scale under different pedo-climatic and marginality conditions across Europe. Large demo fields (not replicated) were established in Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Poland, Ukraine and Latvia and carried out under real operational conditions. At least two different industrial crops were tested in each country.
The results show that marginality conditions can dramatically affect the productivity depending on species and marginality factor; however, some crops seem to have great potentials on marginal land if adequate agricultural practices are properly addressed for the specific marginal conditions.