7 days ago
Base Ireland Hopes Eip Project Will Bring Re Gen Ag to the Masses
Over €1.4 million in funding for a new European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project aimed at restoring soil health and enhancing biodiversity through regenerative agriculture practices has been granted to BASE Ireland.
The project lead for the EIP, Rob Coleman spoke to Agriland about at BASE Ireland's 'Soil Dependence' in Maynooth on Friday (July 4).
BASE Ireland is the Irish branch of an international community of farmers and agriculture professionals focused on implementing and promoting regenerative agriculture.
According to Coleman: 'A big part of this EIP is that it needs to stand up to scrutiny, if there's no money in this, don't waste your time.
'We live in the real world, and the real world is expensive, we can't expect farmers to look at these measures without protecting their incomes.
'So I hope that we will be able to demonstrate that this is not just environmentally positive but farmer-positive too."
Coleman hopes the EIP will bring "re-gen ag to the masses".
He said: 'In BASE Ireland, we've been going for 10 or 12 years, and there's a lot of knowledge built up there, and we're just trying to give it all away.
'If we're successful in our EIP, we should be able to convey that information, and we should be able to inspire people as much as give information."
Coleman also highlighted the issue of generation renewal in farming in Ireland, and the cultural difficulty young people in particular face when looking to adopt new agricultural practices.
He said: 'We're trying to stop the alienation surrounding reg-gen ag.
'We do have a succession problem in farming, and if we can keep the young people interested, there's definitely a rising environmental conscience in young people, and if we can tap into that and make it (farming) more attractive."
Mervyn Auchmuty, who is the secretary of BASE Ireland also spoke to Agriland about some of the regenerative practices he has been using on his farm since joining the organisation in 2018.
He said: "We're direct drilling all our crops; we're trying to reduce our fungicides; we haven't used aphicides for about four or five years.
"I don't see us reducing our herbicides yet, but we have reduced our nitrogen from about 170kg/N/ha, depending on the crop, down to 108kg/N/ha last year."
Auchmuty spoke of how the EIP can tie in with his efforts to cut nitrogen usage on his farm.
"To reduce our nitrogen we've started using melted urea as a foliar feed, we're also using seaweed and trace elements along with that, at the same time," he said.
"By doing that you're trying to get a healthier plant, while also reducing your fungicides.
"So all these things that I'm doing, I'd like to put figures on them as part of the EIP."
