Energy crops, and in particular oil crops, could be an important occasion for developing new non food production rows for a new multi-functional agriculture in Italy. In this view, the use of local biomass is a fundamental starting point for the development of a virtuous energy chain that should pursue not only agricultural profitability, but also chain sustainability and that is less dependent on the global market, characterized by instability in terms of biomass availability and price. From this perspective, particular attention must be paid to crop choice on the basis of its rusticity and of its adaptability to local growing conditions and to low input cropping systems. In this context, alike woody and herbaceous biomasses, oil crops such as sunflower and rapeseed should be able to support local agricultural bioenergy chain in Italy. In addition, in a local bioenergy chain, the role of the farmers should not be limited just to grain production; but also grain processing should be performed at farm or consortium level in oilseed extraction plants well proportioned to the cropped surface. In this way, by means of a simple power generator, farmer could thus produce its own thermal and electric energy from the oil, maximizing his profit. This objective could also be achieved through the exploitation of the total biomass, including crop residues and defatted seed meals, that may be considered as fundamental additional economic and/or environmental benefits of the chain. This paper reports some results of three-years on-farm experiments on oil crop chain carried out in the framework of "Bioenergie" project, that was focused to enhance farmers awareness of these criteria and to the feasibility at open field scale of low-input cultivation of rapeseed, sunflower and Brassica carinata in seven Italian regions. In several on-farm experiences, these crops produced more than 800 kg ha -1 of oil with good energy properties. Defatted seed meals could be interesting as organic fertilizers and, in the case of B. carinata, as a biofumigant amendment that could offer a total or partial alternative to some chemicals in agriculture. Furthermore, biomass soil incorporation could contribute to C sequestration, catching CO 2 from atmosphere and sinking a part in soil as stable humus. Finally, four different open field experiences carried out again in the second year of the project, have been analysed in order to evaluate their energy and greenhouse gasses balance after cultivation phase.

A 3-year field experiment was carried out in southern Italy to evaluate the effect of different combinations of nitrogen (N) fertiliser rates (0, 55, 90, 135 kg ha -1 ), time of application (sowing, tillering, stem elongation) and number of nitrogen applications on durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L., var. durum). A total of eight different combinations -in terms of quantity and time of application -were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Soil plant analysis development was analysed along with leaf area index, grain and straw yield, plant height, plant lodging, thousand-kernel weight, non-vitreous kernels, shrunken and discarded kernels, hectolitre weight, grain protein content, and sodium dodecylsulfate sedimentation. Nitrogen contents of soil, grain and straw were measured in order to assess nitrogen efficiency. The results showed the positive effect of increased nitrogen dosages of 90 and 135 kg ha -1 . The optimisation of nitrogen administration increased by splitting the nitrogen into three application times, as shown by the eco-physiological, productive and qualitative parameters, and the nitrogen efficiency parameters measured (N application efficiency and N recovery fraction).

The potential of land for energy crops is determined by an evaluation\ud of biophysical and economical variables. From this respect, climate,\ud soil and geomorphologic environmental components are the\ud most important agro-ecological variables to conduct this kind of evaluation.\ud In this study, Geographic Information System (GIS) has been\ud used to identify the most suitable areas for rapeseed crop production\ud in the Apulia region. Environmental components such as climate (precipitation,\ud temperature), soil (chemical and physical characteristics\ud including texture, gravel percentage, pH, electrical conductivity (EC),\ud soil depth, etc.), topography (slope) and economical components\ud (farm-useful surface, mechanization, percentage of land covered by\ud cereals and horticulture, irrigated surface, set-aside surface) were\ud considered. Biophysical parameters (climate, geomorphology and soil)\ud were used to draw a map of agronomic suitability of rapeseed according\ud to the Agronomic Classification of the Territory II (CAT II) classification\ud system; a map of general suitability of rapeseed in the Apulia\ud region has been drawn with the support of multicriteria analysis,\ud which also takes into account the economical parameters. The results\ud from overlay maps for agronomic evaluation in the Apulia region\ud showed that 38% (189,983 ha) of the arable land area is highly suitable\ud (S1), 43.4% (21,6642 ha) is moderately suitable (S2), 11.9% (59,487\ud ha) is marginally suitable (S3) and 6.7% (33,210 ha) is and not suitable\ud (N) for rapeseed culThe GIS-multicriteria elaboration of the environmental factors\ud together with structural components of Apulian farms showed that the\ud province of Foggia represents 54.5% of the provincial arable land,\ud whereas the province of Bari (28.8%) has large extent of suitable area\ud for the cultivation of rapeseed for energy use.tivation

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