14,000 ha of lands under camelina cultivation: Official 

An official with Iranian Ministry of Agriculture announced
that currently 14,000 hectares of lands across the country are under the
cultivation of Camelina sativa, which is a promising oilseed crop used for
dietary oil and as a biofuel feedstock. 

Hamid Oraee, who is an adviser to the Iranian agriculture
minister, said camelina is a short-season crop that takes only 85 to 100 days
to mature and requires as little as 11 inches of rain to produce a crop.

“Currently, 14 hectares of our
farmlands across the country are under the cultivation of the plant. Farmers
should be encouraged to grow camelina for it’s so profitable”. 

Camelina sativa is an important Brassicaceae oil crop with a
number of excellent agronomic traits including low water and fertilizer input,
strong adaptation and resistance. 

Furthermore, its short life cycle and easy genetic
transformation, combined with available data of genome and other “-omics” have
enabled camelina as a model oil plant to study lipid metabolism regulation and
genetic improvement. 

Camelina oil can be used as an edible oil and for biodiesel.
There has been research on developing the oil for jet fuel and other high-value
chemicals.