Grint4Pro: Green biomass from intermediate crops – an untapped income source for farmers

How can the complex equation be addressed of a sustainable and circular economy, assuring food demands of an increasing world population, simultaneously as climate change is mitigated and the environmental foot-print reduced?

We propose the development of a circular production system, utilizing the green biomass from intermediate crops as a source for high-value food, nutritious feedstocks, biogas and biostimulants.

A major obstacle to a sustainable and feasible green leaf fractionation and valorization process is the low extraction rate of the proteins. Grint4Pro aims to understand molecular mechanisms for the variation in protein extractability in green biomass.

Intermediate crops are used for increased sustainability in the cropping system, and they are currently plowed down to the soil before sowing the next crop.

Grint4Pro aims to understand how income opportunities can increase for the farmers in a Swedish and Indian context, by the use of the intermediate crops as a green biomass source.

A third target of Grint4Pro is to define valuable and possible products in a circular context from the fractionation of green biomass of intermediate crops.

Thus, Grint4Pro will develop a circular and sustainable system, benefitting the farmers, the environment and the society, through fractionation of green biomass from intermediate crops into a range of products, including protein and bioactive compounds for food and feed, biogas, biostimulants and/or biofertilizers.