SidaTim. Novel Pathways of Biomass Production: Assessing the Potential of Sida hermaphrodita and Valuable Timber Trees.

We present our first results for the SIDATIM research project. This EU project is designed to assess the potential of a new agroforestry system consisting of timber trees and a promising new energy crop called Sida hermaphrodita. The first part of SIDATIM is devoted to assessing the growth and use of Sida hermaphrodita. Sida is not only suitable for heat and energy production, but can also be used for the production of various materials. In Poland Sida has displayed impressive growth, generating dry biomass yields of more than 20 tons per hectare. Yet, there is little data on Sida growth in other European countries. Here, we present new results on the growth of two different Sida provenances, the competitive potential of their seeds when sown together with seed mixtures of native plants, and adaptation of the species to drought and shade. In the second research pillar of SIDATIM, the research focus lies on the production of valuable timber trees in an agricultural setting - in particular, at the edges of fields or in existing hedgerows. Finally, we investigate in a synthetic approach how these two land utilization concepts can be combined in a modern agroforestry system.