Innovation in Agriculture
The Innovation Spotlight is an initiative by CAP Network Ireland to highlight and promote sustainable innovations that may hold solutions to challenges facing the agricultural sector in Ireland. Innovations may be those relevant to supporting the objectives of a specific scheme or strategy in Ireland, that hold a solution to a challenge facing Irish agriculture or be a best practice or process which helps achieve the CAP objectives.
CAP Network Ireland has recently published three Innovation Spotlight interviews, each of which are tackling a particular challenge facing Irish agriculture and can be viewed on our website and YouTube channel. Learn about these innovations below:
Breeding Waders
CAP Network Ireland’s Sarah Glascott spoke with Owen Murphy, Senior Project Manager of the Breeding Waders EIP project. The project aims to secure existing Breeding Wader populations and support population recovery through landscape management and policy development. The project will establish connections with landowners, stakeholders, and communities to foster a comprehensive understanding of the Breeding Waders’ requirements within the landscape. By recognising, valuing, and protecting these species, the EIP-Agri project is promoting a range of ecosystem services that are of benefit to the whole of society.
PhyterBerry
Dr. Steve Collins, founder of PhyterBerry, spoke to Sarah Glascott about growing aronia berries in the hills near Bantry in West Cork, Ireland. This Innovation Spotlight interview highlighted a potential diversification route for Irish farmers. Creating successful products using aronia berries would open up huge potential for many rural Irish farmers, especially those on marginal land, and those looking to diversify away from carbon intensive practices of sheep and cattle farming. Dr. Steve Collins is keen to speak with farmers that might be interested in growing aronia berries and you can find his contact details at the end of the video interview.
CODECS
CODECS stands for maximising the co-benefits of agricultural digitalisation through conducive digital ecosystems and is a 4-year Horizon Europe project. The aim of the project is to “improve the motivation and the capacity of European farmers to understand and adopt digitalisation as an enabler of sustainable and transformative change”. As part of our Innovation Spotlight series, CAP Network Ireland’s Sarah Glascott spoke with CODECS’ Project Coordinator Gianluca Brunori to learn more about how the project can help identify priorities and policy tools to build conducive digital ecosystems.
If you are interested in taking part in the Innovation Spotlight series, please contact the Innovation Hub team. Stay tuned for more outputs from the CAP Network Ireland Innovation Hub, particularly in relation to our three thematic pilots.