**4. Conclusions**

112 Oilseeds

Fig. 7. Capsulated seed yield (above) in varieties of *C. abyssinica* in two-year trial and oil content (below). Letters: significant differences among varieties within same year (P≤0.05,

percentage of Mario (-2%) and Galactica (-5%), but not in Nebula, which showed very stable

As expected, the content of erucic acid in the oil was very high in all varieties, and in 2006 reached a mean fraction of 58.4%, much higher than that of HEAR (~50%). These results indicate that, in our environment, crambe has lower productivity than HEAR in terms of erucic acid (0.61 vs. 0.89 t ha-1), although the higher fraction may facilitate its separation

In view of the short cycle of this crop in spring sowing, the total amounts of both oil and erucic acid produced seems considerable, although significant variations may be expected across years. Greater precocity may allow some genotypes to perform better in terms of oil

Duncan's test). Vertical bars: standard error.

content but not of seed yield (e.g., Nebula).

behaviour across years.

from the other fatty acids.

A possible increase in the erucic acid market is feasible only if large amounts of oils with high erucic acid content can be stably available on the market at reasonable prices. With this aim, studies on introducing new high-erucic species in promising environments and defining low input management are essential for the progress of this niche market.

From this study, the large-scale cultivation of high-erucic oilseed crops in the plain areas of NE Italy seems feasible with different performance among species. The productive results achieved by all studied species were in any cases encouraging. Although HEAR is the higher-yielding oilseed crop for this environment, *Brassica carinata* and *Crambe abyssinica* showed interesting prospects which should be supported by more intense breeding programmes. Several traits of these new species should be improved, especially yield stability (across years and environments). Currently, the main aspect to be investigated is their optimal sowing date, which seems to be the most important variable affecting yield. *Crambe abyssinica* appeared particularly interesting in view of its short spring cycle which may make it a good alternative to sugarbeet and soybean, two crops extensively cultivated in NE Italy.

All three of these oil crops (*B. napus* HEAR, *B. carinata* and *C. abyssinica*) turned out to be easily adaptable to input reduction, without significant changes in seed yield or quality. In particular, the positive response of these *Brassicaceae* to reduction of N fertilisation means that cultivation costs, which represent an important factor, can be reduced considerably. Other technical aspects, e.g., weed management, must be carefully investigated in future for these new crops, as no herbicides are yet registered on the market. Large inter-row distances and mechanical weeding also makes weed control easier.

Southern Europe seems a promising basin for the cultivation of high-erucic species, in view of the good soil fertility (high OM), mild winter temperatures, and the introduction of new hybrids (HEAR) which are particularly plastic and extremely high-yielding. With this

Adaptability and Sustainable Management

180*.*

2350.

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#### **5. Acknowledgements**

The authors would like to thank the regional project "No food" of Friuli Venezia Giulia for funding research on HEAR and *Crambe abyssinica*. The Italian Ministry of Agriculture is also thanked for funding the project "Agrienegie" on *Brassica carinata*. Grateful thanks go to Dr. Franco Tosini, director of the Rosolina research centre, for kindly hosting experiments on *Brassica carinata*. Technical supervision by Adriano Massignan and revision of the English text by Gabriel Walton are also acknowledged.

#### **6. References**


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**5. Acknowledgements** 

**6. References** 


**1. Introduction** 

threshold levels.

quality and quantity of the products.

**7** 

*Iran* 

**Oilseed Pests** 

*Islamic Azad University, Shoushtar Branch,* 

Oilseeds occupy an important position in agriculture and industrial economy. So, management of pest problems and using possible control techniques could increase the

A large variety of pests damage oilseeds and cause significant losses in the farms or storages. Among which insect pests are a significant factor in the economics of oilseed

An extensive review of oilseed pest has been conducted by numerous national research programs in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, United Kingdom, United State and etc.

Pests of oilseeds can be classified according to the different factors such as taxonomic grouping, feeding habitat, distribution. Within each groups, the pest status may vary with country, year and season depending on species, variety, cropping system used. Some of the pests may attack a certain type of oilseed; the others are generalists and can feed on a variety of crops. Pests with different feeding habitat could have either chewing or sucking mouthparts. Pests with chewing mouthparts eat parts of the crops such as flowers, foliage, stems, roots or buds. They may only eat portions of leaves, leave holes in the leaves (flea beetles), cause bud abscission, reducing yield of the pods and leaf area, earlier leaf

Pests with sucking mouthparts such as aphids, bugs, thrips, whiteflies, mites, and jassids usually cause the plant to discolor or twist and curl. The plant may discolor from tiny yellow speckles (spider mites), larger darkened spots (plant bugs), reducing the canopy area of the plant, and therefore its photo-synthetic capacity, coatings of black sooty mold

Also, several pests may attack oilseed crops occasionally or their populations don't exceed

Protection of the crops from pest's infestations and keeping the pests under proper control has become in consideration due to the importance of the crops. Pest management is done by different methods such as cultural control, biological control, physical control, host plant resistance and assessing the economic thresholds to determine the need to apply pesticides (chemical control). By doing one of these methods, farmers can protect their farms and agricultural produce. However, integrating two or more control techniques to manage one

production. There are also several vertebrate pests such as rats, slugs and birds.

abscission, delayed owering (weevils) or bore into stems and roots (borers).

growing on honeydew deposits or transmitting viruses (aphids and whiteflies).

Masumeh Ziaee

Zhao-Hui, W.; Sheng-Xiu, L. & Sukhdev, M. (2008). Effects of fertilization and other agronomic measures on nutritional quality of crops. *Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture*, Vol. 88, No. 7, (2008), pp. 7-23.
