COMPLETED Camelina: Canada’s Next Oilseed
The Camelina project was conceived to unlock the potential of a hardy plant with an unusually high oil content.
The oil is showing potential in a variety of areas from environmentally-friendly jet fuel to a dietary and cosmetic supplement to livestock and agriculture feeds. Plus, because the plant grows in fairly harsh conditions, requiring little water or warm weather, it can be grown in lands that don’t compete for food crops.
This $6.1-million project, with key local funder, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency – Atlantic Innovation Fund (ACOA-AIF), aimed to provide the basic genomic information, with the goal of helping to augment production in a variety of areas. It was particularly focused on Camelina’s potential use as a replacement for fish oil and fish meal in aquaculture feeds.
Partners with a major role in the project include the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the University of Saskatchewan and Genome Prairie.
The project was announced in January 2010, and finished in the Spring of 2015.