Nebraska Forest Service COMMERCIALIZING THE HYBRID HAZELNUT AS A BIOENERGY AND FOOD CROP FOR THE CENTRAL STATES

To accelerate commercial development of the hybrid hazelnut as a profitable, environmentally friendly food and bioenergy crop for producers in Nebraska and the central United States. Commerically available hazelnuts, or filberts, are currently produced only in Oregon from the European hazelnut. This plant is not productive elsewhere in the U.S. due to disease susceptibility and lack of cold hardiness. After nearly a century of breeding, cold-hardy, disease-resistant hybrids that produce commercial quantities of high-quality nuts in Nebraska are now available. A consortium of the Nebraska Forest Service (at the University of Nebraska), Oregon State University, Arbor Day Foundation and Rutgers University is leading the effort nationally to commercialize this new “third” crop