New crop likely to be processed in Ontario but mostly grown in Western Canada

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario will likely be home to the oil-processing infrastructure for a non-food crop called camelina sativa, says Jack Grushcow, president of Linnaeus Plant Sciences.

That’s how the province will fit in as part of industry and government efforts to develop the oilseed crop variety that will be used to produce industrial oil for environmentally friendly lubricants and polymers. Linnaeus is the lead industrial partner in a project by Soy 20/20 to develop market-ready varieties of camelina sativa and increase the value of the oil for industrial use.

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced funding of $3.7 million in Saskatoon last week for the Soy 20/20 project. The money comes from the AgriInnovation program, a five-year, $698 million program of Growing Forward 2. The program supports pre-commercialization, research, development and knowledge transfer projects that lead to innovative agriculture, agri-food and agri-based practices, processes and products.

Grushcow says the camelina sativa crop is currently being grown on a small scale in Saskatchewan and will probably be grown in Alberta too. The project developers are looking at how the crop might fit into Ontario agriculture. “We’re looking at some possible rotations,” he says.

Camelina is a drought tolerant crop that needs very little water or fertilizer to survive and can be grown on marginal land, a Sept. 27 federal government press release says. The crop provides renewable oils that can be used to replace petroleum-derived products. The residual meal can also be used as protein-rich feed for cattle, poultry and swine.

Grushcow says Soy 20/20 has a large project to develop bio-lubricants and other feed stocks derived from soybeans. Camelina isn’t a type of soybean; it’s a mustard. But the camelina project fits into the infrastructure Soy 20/20 is developing for a bio-lubricants market in the province. “Ontario is the largest consumer of things like lubricants and feed stocks for polymers,” he notes.

It makes sense that “the home for developing the business and processing these oils would be in Ontario,” Grushcow says, noting the crop will likely mainly be grown in Western Canada.

Soy 20/20 is a collaboration of government, academics and industry that’s working together to develop and seize new global markets for Canadian soybeans. In addition to working with Linnaeus Plant Sciences, Soy 20/20 is partnering with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers who are trying to improve the agronomic traits of the crop, the seed size and its disease resistance. BF