Friday, 4 October 2024
KPM Soils, as part of the Intelligent Cities Challenge 2.0 (ICC) North West Ireland team, held the Soil Matters Information Workshop on September 30th at the Spraoi agus Sport social enterprise hub in Carndonagh. The workshop supports the Local Green Deal (LGD) "Grow Eat Compost Repeat," a community composting initiative developed under the Intelligent Cities Challenge. The North West City region of Derry/Strabane and Donegal is taking part in the ICC alongside over 60 cities from across Europe.
Dr Margaret Quinn from ERNACT opened the evening by talking about the ICC and Local Green Deals—partnerships between local governments, businesses, and communities to make positive changes for a greener future. Margaret said, "For me the evening was transformative. It was a true education. I had never realised just how fundamental soil regeneration is for climate, the environment, human health, animal health, biodiversity. The potential for carbon sequestration via adoption of regenerative practices is simply enormous."
The event, led by Claire and Kevin Moore of KPM Soils, had a great turnout. Claire and Kevin are experts to help with the community composting Local Green Deal initiative. The audience included local gardeners, community growers, farmers and environmental volunteers.
Claire explained that in the past, people mostly looked at soil for its minerals, organic matter, air, and water. However, the role of living organisms in the soil was often ignored. Now, a new focus is emerging on how these micro-organisms play a big role in improving soil health. Kevin, one of the few experts in this field, showed the audience the difference between healthy and damaged soil through an epifluorescent microscope. Claire also spoke about how better soil can help with climate change, biodiversity, and reducing pollution in rivers.
KPM Soils has found that many farms struggle with low organic matter, soil compaction, poor water drainage, and low diversity of soil organisms. But there are ways to improve this. The workshop gave tips on how to restore soil health through methods like avoiding heavy tilling, not digging too much, and reducing the use of chemicals. Using compost rich in micro-organisms can help kick-start the renewal of soil, bringing it back to life.
The next event will show how to create microbially rich "kick-starter" compost. It will take place in Clonmany Community Gardens in mid-October, where they will demonstrate building a Johnson-Su Bioreactor.
Everyone is welcome to join—keep an eye out for updates!
