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Duckweed feed can help agri-industry meet climate targets
Irish-produced animal feed, made with locally-found duckweed can help the Irish agriculture industry meet its climate targets, a meeting of leading experts from around the world will hear today.
Some 45 leading scholars and practitioners from around Ireland and across the globe will meet at University College Cork (UCC) today, June 9, to explore advances in duckweed research and applications, and how these can contribute to an innovative and sustainable agri-feed industry for Ireland.
Professor Marcel Jansen, duckweed expert at UCC, said: “We are increasingly aware of the problems that come with our dependence on imported soya as a feed protein source for our farms. It is extremely exciting to think that we can produce some of that same high value protein right here in Ireland.”
The Irish agri-feed industry is heavily reliant on imported feed. However, imports of protein-rich feed have been criticised for their climate and environmental impacts, as well as their dependency on worldwide trade, which may result in price volatility as well as exposure to disruptive international events, such as the Ukraine war.
Growing protein-rich crops on home soil can reduce demand for imported feed. Duckweed is a particularly promising protein crop that is suitable as a soya replacement in animal feeds.
Often considered a weed, as seemingly confirmed by its name, duckweed is an exceptionally useful plant native to Ireland. Duckweed can grow on nutrient-rich wastewater from the agricultural industry, cleaning the wastewater in the process. Thus, duckweed is an ideal plant to be part of a circular bioeconomy process whereby wastewater becomes a resource for protein production.
Duckweed research in Ireland has been supported by the Environmental Protection Agency and the European Regional Development Fund. A new project led by UCC and funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine specifically develops duckweed growth on farm waste streams, optimises protein extraction technology, and assesses the economic and environmental viability of the use of these plants in feed production for Irish agriculture.
The project, involving also Teagasc, Technological University Dublin, and Devenish Nutrition, is inviting Irish farmers to explore the up-to-date information on duckweed as a new resource here on our website. See our Project page or get in touch via our Contact page to discuss further.