Project Description

Hemp4Soil is a regenerative farming experiment and explores the benefits of hemp for soil health and is the first project of its kind in Europe. Hemp4Soil is an EIP project and supported and sponsored by Teagasc, CDA, Irish Wildlife Trust, AnTaisce and others and its first phase will be completed by the end of 2022.

Loop Head Together in conjunction with ten local farmers, the Department for Agriculture, Fisheries and the Marine and ecology and biodiversity experts, explore how growing Hemp could not only improve the overall quality of the soil and benefit local biodiversity, but also provide a sustainable income stream for farmers in the future as well as provide a product, from which the offshoots could potentially be used within a local industry. All of these potential outcomes align with the European Green Deal.

What does this experiment entail?

• 10 local farmers have given 1 acre of their land to be used for the experiment for initially 12 months.

• The one acre of land is being be managed by the project’s operational team for that 12-month period and will be returned to the farmer at the end of the project in the best condition.

• The one acre of land was seeded with a crop of Hemp by the project team.

• The crop was regularly tended to and assessed by the project team.

• The soil quality was assessed regularly by the project team throughout the duration of the experiment.

Project Justification & Objectives

• Reduce the presence of chemical fertilisers in the soil.

• Improve Soil Microbial activity.

• Increase Carbon content of soil.

• Training Opportunities and Knowledge Transfer.

• Spreading the good practice throughout the community.

• Creating the potential for a circular Economy solution.

• Exploring the potential for offshoot local industry.

• Loop Head community working towards being Ireland's first carbon neutral community.

Project Stakeholders

• Loop Head Together

• CDA

• Wild Atlantic Hemp

• Teagasc

• Irish Wildlife Trust

• AnTaisce

• TUS

• Hemp Cooperative Ireland

• University of Essex

• UCD

• Arigana BioFuels