The Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with special responsibility for Horticulture, Senator Pippa Hackett, has welcomed the announcement of €1.69 million in funding for research into peat alternatives for Horticulture arising from the Department’s Competitive Research Call 2021.
The announcement follows a turbulent week for the horticulture industry, which saw the The Horticultural Peat (Temporary Measures) Bill 2021 put before the Seanad in a bipartisan effort by Fine Gael senator Regina Doherty, and Fianna Fáil senator Robbie Gallagher. The bill sought to roll back restrictions that were placed upon the horticulture industry in 2019, that required planning permission, in addition to EPA licensing, in order to conduct peat extraction. It was quickly announced by Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Malcolm Noonan, that the bill would not be taken up by the government and that efforts would instead be redoubled to research peat alternatives.
While acknowledging that peat is an essential component in the production of plants and mushrooms in professional horticulture, Senator Hackett also addressed the pressing need to develop alternatives which have a favourable environmental profile while also maintaining crop yield and quality. Speaking of the announcement of research funding, the senator said, “This is a significant step in assisting the horticulture sector to transition from peat as a growing media to sustainable alternatives.”
The Teagasc led research project ‘Beyond Peat’ focuses on utilising organic bio-resources and novel technologies to develop specifically designed and sustainable peat replacements for professional horticultural crop production. ‘Beyond Peat’ will assess current, available alternative growth and casing materials across five key sub-sectors of horticulture while also developing advanced growth media utilising new technologies to transform organic wastes into materials with favourable physical characteristics for plant and mushroom performance. Other institutions across the island of Ireland collaborating on the project include Technological University of the Shannon, University of Limerick, University College Dublin, Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute and University College Cork.
The Minister added:
“The funding of €1.69 million being provided to this project demonstrates my Department’s continued commitment to finding alternatives to peat as a growing media and will build on the research already funded by this Department. I would also encourage the horticulture sector to utilise the €9 million in funding for the Scheme of Investment Aid for the Commercial Horticulture Sector in their transition to peat alternatives. Financial support is available under this Scheme to assist growers and businesses through grant aid for capital investments in specialised plant and equipment including renewable energy, as well as technology adoption specific to commercial horticulture production, such as those for utilising alternative growing media.”
