Maynooth University research project gets backing for farm sustainability study
Science Foundation Ireland has awarded €243,000 from the National Challenge Fund to researchers from the departments of Biology and Electronic Engineering at Maynooth University (MU) to support a project on sustainable soil health.
The project, DNet4SSoils, aims to improve the long-term health of soils in the context of a changing climate and support low-input agriculture, reducing farmers’ need for fertiliser.
Over the next 18 months, the MU team will work with the Irish Organic Association to create a new low-cost technology platform that will enable famers to evaluate their land in more detail than currently possible.
Project co-lead Dr Conor Meade said: “By the middle of this century Irish famers will face the dual challenge of drought due to climate change and the need to move toward low-fertiliser farming. This presents an acute pressure point for Irish agriculture.
“Working with the most important resource on every farm – the soil – our project aims to simplify the process of identifying ideal soil and crop matches at a local level, based on local farming expertise, and focused on building climate resilience into farm practice.”
One of 25 teams competing in the final two National Challenges, the MU team will now compete in the Future Food Systems Challenge that gives academic research teams the opportunity to contribute to Ireland’s efforts in creating sustainable, productive and resilient food systems.
Speaking at the launch of the National Challenge Fund, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD said: “This kind of solutions-driven research will help us to tackle the big societal changes we face as we become a green and digital country, and I am already looking forward to the years ahead as we see the projects advance.”
The National Challenge Fund is supported by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.
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