CATERPILLAR (CAnapa TEssile peR la ProduzIone di aLimenti funzionaLi e di biomAsse pRoteiche per l'alimentazione animale — textile hemp for the production of functional foods and protein biomass for animal feed) is a project funded by the Emilia-Romagna Region under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, measure 16.1.01 "Operational Groups of the European Innovation Partnership for agricultural productivity and sustainability", Focus Area 2A (Decree no. 7038 of 27/04/2020).
CATERPILLAR operates within the Italian hemp supply chain and aims to diversify production and increase the profitability of the crop, generating new by-products with high added value and opening up the opportunity for the farm to enter new markets. In particular, CATERPILLAR aims to strengthen the aspects linked to the use in food of the products and of the waste from fibre hemp processing.
More specifically, the project is based on the organic cultivation of monoecious hemp and on the separate harvesting of the tops for the production of seed and of the stalks for the production of textile and technical fibre. The seed will be used to produce oil and flour, the stalks to produce fibre and shives. Hemp oil and flour will be used to produce functional foods, including gluten-free ones. The fibre will be extracted from the stalks in a prototype bioreactor for microbiological retting; larvae of the fly Hermetia illucens will clean the retted fibre. Finally, the resulting larval biomass will be used to produce additives for the animal feed industry.
The project includes training activities for farms under Measure 1 of the Rural Development Programme of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
Duration: April 2020 – April 2022
Technical and scientific manager: Vita Maria Cristiana Moliterni, CREA
Coordinator: Roberto Ranieri, Open Fields
Partners: Open Fields (Coordinator); Research Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics of the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA, Scientific Manager); Azienda Agraria Sperimentale Stuard; Interdepartmental Centre for Food Safety, Technologies and Innovation of the University of Parma (SITEIA-UNIPR); Naturfibre; Agriform (training body); the farms Ca' D'Alfieri (Bardi, PR) and Pedrazzi (Pellegrino P.se, PR).
Website: www.gocaterpillar.it