The Development of Innovative Alternative Crops for Production of Natural Rubber conference is scheduled to take on November 4-6, at the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) in Montpellier, France.
The aim of the conference is to bring together academics, farmers, end-users, government, private agencies, and university students to discuss the interest in developing two major alternative sources of natural rubber (NR): guayule (Parthenium argentatum) a shrub native to Mexico, adapted to semi-arid and Mediterranean climates, and Russian dandelion (Taraxacum kok sagyz), native to Kazakhstan, adapted to continental climates.
Interest in the two plants has increased around the world and especially in Europe since the last conference organized by CIRAD on the same topic in October 2010, as part of the European EU-PEARLS project.
The demand for NR was 12mt in 2018 and is expected to reach 19mt in 2025, with a growth rate of 5.3% for tires and 3.5% for gloves.
The conference will provide information on recent developments in research projects worldwide. Industry experts, agri-chain professionals and innovators are all encouraged to share their experience and interest in the two plants. Academics working on other potential latex plants with interesting new co-products are also welcome.
Discussions and presentations are expected to cover the following topics:
1. Agriculture and genomics
2. Processing and extraction
3. Bio-refinery and co-products
4. Economics and sustainability
The sessions will be preceded by a visit to a guayule field and pilot extraction facility in Lansargues during the first day of the conference.
Registration is already open, and anybody can submit a proposal for abstracts and posters. Please submit your proposal to the scientific committee before September 30, 2019. Further information is available on the conference website diacpnr.sciencesconf.org.
