Cultivation of Camelina in Greece: the third BIKE open lab

On the 31st of March 2023, the third Open lab of the BIKE project took place, in the proximity of the Greek city of Thessaloniki

Here, project partners and other external guests who participated in the workshop “Production of Low-ILUC risk biomass feedstock”, visited to distinct fields in the countryside north-east of Thessaloniki. 

Here, the BIKE partner CRES (Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving ) is testing the cultivation of Camelina as a sequential crop, in rotation with sunflower, on lands considered to be “marginal”. 

The Camelina is planted in December and harvested at the end of May, while sunflower will be sown in early june, using a no-till technique, with which the seeds will be sown directly below the residues of the first crop.

This will help to retain a certain amount of soil moisture and will help to increase the soil organic matter in the fieldAfter visiting this first experimental field, the group visited another testing site where the cultivation of Brassica carinata is currently undergoing, also aimed at the production of renewable diesel.