A Look Inside a Hemp Project to Regenerate Ireland's Most Inhospitable Soil

Cannabis News World

Jun 3

A Look Inside a Hemp Project to Regenerate Ireland's Most Inhospitable Soil
Cannabtimes

<![CDATA[Laura Jayne Foley and her husband, Daniel Lyons, hemp cultivators and founders of Wild Atlantic Hemp, use natural methods on their farm in Ireland. While much of the farmland in the region is poor quality, Foley says she noticed major improvements in their crops after adding biochar and homemade microbial tea to the soil—both natural methods of improving the soil's nutrient density and production capacity. Made from worm castings and seaweed, the tea increases microbial life in the soil, while biochar provides a home for microbes."On one side of the field, the hemp was patchy and short," explains Foley. "But on the other side where we used the biochar, it was a completely different story. It was ridiculously obvious that something had been done to the soil."Daniel Lyons and Laura Jayne FoleyFoley, who holds a master's degree in agriculture from the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), is acutely aware of soil degradation in the world today. As a hemp farmer who has witnessed the plant's benefits on the environment firsthand, she was inspired to seek out ways she could expand her grow practices to help other farmers in her region, where she says much of the soil is poor quality peat soil, damaged by the overuse of artificial fertilizers. A few months after testing biochar and microbial tea on her land, Foley helped launch Hemp4Soil, a project run by local community group Loop Head Together. The one-year project will explore how local farmers growing hemp in the area could affect—and potentially improve—the quality of the soil and benefit local diversity.If the project is successful, it could not only improve the soil and change the farming practices in Foley's local Clare County, but also help influence the European Union's (EU) policy on hemp and dairy farming, in line with its…