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Terres Inovia is involved in the development of two diversification crucifers

Vincent Lecomte, technical and economic studies officer, and Patrick Carré, process engineer and strategic expert, went to Bologna (Italy) last week for the launch meeting of the CARINA project.

CARINA is the contraction of Camelina and Carinata, two diversification crucifers whose characteristic is to be able to produce, on marginal land or as a harvestable plant cover, oil seeds of interest for their oils, proteins and certain secondary metabolites.

The project's ambition is to lead a co-design process with groups of farmers to develop technical itineraries for their development. It will thus enable Terres Inovia to support the technical development of the crop with storage organisations that are testing its deployment in partnership with Saipol. It integrates an innovation approach towards the downstream sector for a better valorisation of protein-rich oilcake but impacted by anti-nutritional factors. It is planned to turn this defect into a strength by extracting undesirable molecules to test their interest as a means of combating plant aggressors.

The project is attracting interest from the biomaterials and lipid chemistry sectors. It will also look at the economics of the sector and the impact of agricultural and environmental policies on the development of these new crops.

CARINA will benefit from €7 million in funding over 4 years and has 19 partners and 5 associated entities in 12 countries. The project leader is the University of Bologna. France is represented by Arvalis, Terres Inovia and Saipol. Terres Inovia is involved in three disciplines: agronomy, multi-criteria evaluation, and transformation processes with, in particular, developments around glucosinolates.

Contact: Patrick Carré, p.carre@terresinovia.fr