Watch: Where is 'regenerative farming' at in Ireland?
How can regenerative farming play a bigger role in Ireland's farming sector?
That is the question that Project Baseline, a new European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project aims to find the answer to.
Speaking to Agriland its project manager, Dr. Pippa Hackett, said that the goal is to establish a better understanding of the impacts involved with regenerative farming - both from an environmental and financial perspective.
She said: "Project Baseline is about working to understand more about regenerative agriculture... and being able to quantify the impacts of those practices on important things like biodiversity or water quality.
"It is important to look at the farm financial side of it because, when you speak to regenerative farmers, they tell you it is working for them.
"They have got better quality soil and their farm finances are doing better so we are going to put that to the test for a project based on [regenerative farming]."
BASE Ireland
The project is being spearheaded by BASE Ireland, which has received €1.45 million in funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the European Commission.
The project lead and chair of BASE Ireland, Rob Coleman also outlined to Agriland what the term 'regenerative farming' entails.
"For farmers of BASE Ireland, regenerative agriculture is about being very efficient with your inputs," he said.
Coleman highlighted key aspects involved with regenerative agriculture, such as soil health, crop diversification and farming with nature in mind.
Project Baseline
He intends that the project's focus will not be bogged down on the terminology, but instead showcase the results and benefits of regenerative agriculture.
"There are a lot of different definitions [for regenerative agriculture] around but really, from the farmer's perspective, the definition isn't too important."
According to Coleman, the project aims to display howregenerative practices can evolve to return positive impacts to soil health, the environment and importantly - a farmer's bottom line.
"I would think that we should be able to have agricultural productivity and minding the environment at the same time; that is more or less the basis [of the project]"
Project Baseline also aims to to assess the social and cultural barriers that are discouraging farmers from adopting more sustainable farming methods.
Coleman said: "Sometimes it is financial worries or lack of knowledge but there are cultural things such as what it is like to be talked about by your neighbours."
He said the big hope for the project is to find the balance between embracing traditional farming methods while also adapting to emerging environmental challenges.
"I do think the environment will play a bigger and bigger part in farming over time.
"We are trying to embrace it as best as we can", he added.
Coleman outlined to Agriland that the new project is designed to gather the lived experiences of regenerative farmers and subsequently share those lessons in a practical, accessible way.
He said: "If we can capture the knowledge and experiences and all the ups and downs that BASE Ireland farmers have had over the past 10 or 15 years, we should have a good, sound document and gathering of data that people can access.
"It will open the doors for people to hopefully embrace a bit more regenerative agriculture in the future."
DAFM
Meanwhile the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, who officially launched the project, shared his thoughts on regenerative agriculture.
He said that BASE Ireland's work demonstrates how farm profitability and environmental care can go hand-in-hand.
Heydon also believes that the new project will provide "more information for farmers who want to look at regenerative practices and incorporate them more into farming systems."
