Tune in to the latest episode of our Counting the Earth podcast - From peat to paddies: 12.
This episode explores the challenge of protecting the UK’s lowland peatlands while sustaining food production. Visiting a trials site at Oxwillow Farm in the Cambridgeshire Fens, hosts Sue Nelson and Alice Hope uncover pioneering UKCEH research into paludiculture, or wetland farming, where higher water tables help preserve peat while supporting alternative crops.
Speaking with UKCEH scientists Professor Richard Pywell, Dr Nadine Mitschunas and Dr Terhi Riutta, they visit experimental plots growing crops ranging from salads and cucumbers to miscanthus for bioenergy, reedmace for biofibres and even cold-hardy rice. Site owners, farmers Craig and Sarah Taylor, whose family have farmed in the Fens for over 500 years, discuss the opportunities and challenges of farming on rewetted peat in a changing climate.
With early trials showing potential to reduce carbon emissions, boost biodiversity and maintain productive agriculture, the episode explores how innovation could help balance food production, climate resilience and nature recovery across the Fens.
Find out more
Rice takes root in British soil for the first time.
The research is part of the AgZero+ project, which is jointly funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
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Produced by Rachael Buchanan.
Counting the Earth is a Boffin Media production for the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.