agronomy

Edible and industrial oils that are extracted from crops are in demand globally with more than 200 million metric tones produced every year. There are also many products grown from oil crops that serve various purposes, from biofuels and cosmetics to food production.

Ideal for farmers, farmworkers, farm suppliers, service providers and agricultural consultants, the Certificate of Agronomy – Oil Crops will give you insights into how edible and industrial oils are extracted from crops.

In this agronomy course, you will learn the fundamentals of how to grow successful oil crops, diversify farm crops, and farm canola, rapeseed and olives for oil production.

You will also learn agronomic farming and the production of edible oils, cosmetic and medicinal oils, industrial and biofuel applications, and how to formulate a plan for developing and managing a plant oil production enterprise.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking an agronomy course include:

• Learning about the nature and scope of oil crops
• Exploring plant oils, essential oils and what plants can be grown where
• Gaining an understanding of vegetable, edible vegetable, industrial vegetable and other edible oils
• Studying the economic value of crops
• Examining oil extraction, oil seed processing, pre-treatment, processing steps and mechanical processing
• Understanding chemical processing, cold press, solvent and enzymatic extraction and other processing methods
• Attaining knowledge of microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE)
• Gaining insights into simple, steam, fractional, vacuum, molecular, extractive and membrane distillation
• Learning about canola and rapeseed, the characteristics, world production, how to grow canola and using seed
• Exploring soil types, soil preparation, sowing and growth stages
• Gaining an understanding of environmental stresses, nutrition and irrigation management
• Studying weeds, pest control and diseases ((Blackleg, Sclerotinia, Alternaria leaf and pod spot)
• Examining harvesting and direct combine harvesting
• Understanding swathing, storage and processing
• Attaining knowledge of olive, its characteristics, world production, how to grow olives and how to use seedlings
• Gaining insights into soil types, soil preparation, planting, pruning, growing conditions and varieties
• Learning about nutrition, irrigation management and weeds
• Exploring pest control, diseases, organic production, harvesting, storage and processing
• Gaining an understanding of other edible oils, growing conditions, organic matter, soil texture, subsoil pH and soil water available to plants
• Studying the slope of topography, natural soil drainage, maintaining good soil structure and growing edible oil crops
• Understanding oil extraction and biodiesel processing
• Attaining knowledge of transesterification, the cost of oil extraction and on-farm oilseed processing
• Gaining insights into harvesting, seed cleaning, seed pressing and oilseed processing facility
• Learning about economic analysis, variable and fixed production costs and on-farm oilseed processing

And more!

Industry Facts and Figures

When you study an agronomy course that focuses on oil crops, you will begin to understand the scope of the industry across Australia. Australia produces between two and three million tonnes of oilseed crops each year, with cottonseed and canola accounting for over 90 per cent of total oilseed production. Soybeans and sunflower comprise a further three and four per cent respectively. Canola production is now the largest oilseed crop representing well over half of Australian oilseed production over the past five years, while cottonseed comprises around a third.

In terms of exporting, while Australia is a relatively small producer of oilseeds by international standards, it is widely recognised for its high-quality exports. Currently, the US, Japan and China are the major cottonseed destinations, while China, the EU, the UAE and Pakistan are important markets for Australian canola.

Canola

Australian canola is sought after globally for its use as a food-grade oil, for biofuel production and as a stock feed. Australian canola production is on the rise, averaging more than three million metric tonnes annually, making up fifteen to twenty per cent of the world’s export trade.

Canola is well known for producing one of the world’s healthiest vegetable oils and its importance as an environmentally-friendly biofuel is growing. Australian canola is typically grown using sustainable farming systems and can be certified as meeting sustainability criteria for market access to Europe for use in biofuel.

Canola is grown in the higher rainfall regions of Australia’s grain belt. The growing area extends from south-west Western Australia to south-eastern Australia, and into northern New South Wales.

Canola and Omega-3

Nutritionists have recognised the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for many years and Omega-3 oils are polyunsaturated fatty acids that are considered “healthy oils”.

Docosa-hexaenoic acid (DHA) is a long-chain omega-3 oil and a key structural component of cellular membranes in the human body. It is vital for early childhood growth and, in particular, eye and brain development. It can also reduce blood pressure and the risk of coronary heart disease as well as stroke, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma and inflammatory disease.

DHA and other long-chain omega-3 fatty acids are made by lower plant forms, including marine plants like microalgae. Some land-based plants, like flaxseed, can produce short-chain omega-3 oils, but are unable to produce the more beneficial long chain omega-3 oils containing DHA.

The awareness of their health benefits and inclusion in diets – either as supplements or used to fortify processed foods – has grown exponentially over the last decade.

Fish, the world’s primary source of dietary omega-3 oils, do not create their own DHA, they acquire DHA when they eat microalgae. Fish accumulate high levels of DHA, which in turn can be consumed by humans as a source of DHA. As demand for omega-3 oils continues to grow faster than can be sustainably supplied from wild fish stocks, the race is on to find potential new sources which can satisfy burgeoning consumer demand.

Production

The production of plants containing industrially-relevant amounts of these marine-type oils has been a long-standing goal of bioengineers. Using gene technology, scientists have transferred the ability to produce long chain omega-3 oils from lower plants (the marine microalgae that fish consume) into canola, the world’s second-largest and Australia’s largest oilseed crop.

This involved introducing a set of eight transgenes that extended canola’s short-chain omega-3 synthesis pathway all the way to marine-type EPA and DHA fatty acids. It is the most complex piece of metabolic engineering so far achieved in plants. The oil profile in the new canola type has excellent DHA levels and a desirably high omega-3 to omega-6 ratio.

By being able to produce long-chain omega-3 oils in canola scientists are developing a nutrient that is important for human health in a sustainable plant resource. They have also shown that it’s possible to produce canola oils containing the same long chain omega-3 oils found in fish oil and at levels that are commercially viable.

Commercialisation

In 2011, the CSIRO joined forces with the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Nuseed to further develop long-chain omega-3 canola for commercialisation.

In February 2018, the Australian Office of Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) announced omega-3 canola had been approved for cultivation and use in animal feed. Food uses of the Omega-3 canola have been reviewed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FASANZ) with approval granted for sale and use in food in Australia and New Zealand. In addition, omega-3 canola also received USDA deregulation approval for cultivation in the USA in 2018.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) provided financial support to assist in the development of the technology to make the production of the special canola possible and Nuseed is managing global commercialisation.

Ultimately, this research will provide growers and those who study an agronomy course focusing on oil crops with an exciting new variety of domestic and international markets.

Source: 2021, Our reliance on fish stocks for omega-3, CSIRO

 

Gain a foundational understanding of how to farm oil crops with an agronomy course like our Certificate of Agronomy – Oil Crops.