We are partners in the very exciting project led by NIAB called the Centre for High Carbon Capture Cropping also known as CHCx3. We will be helping look at the potential for willow to lock up carbon and also work with other partners to get project results onto the Envirocrops web app. This will help farmers make good evidence based decisions on crop options.
Recently I was asked to write a piece for the Insights newsletter giving a bit of background about me and my motivations for being involved with biomass crops and the wider potential for carbon farming. This is what I said.
Back in 1993, I got a casual summer job at Long Ashton Research Station in Bristol. Even though I had a BSc in Environmental Biology, I wasn’t that familiar with the concept of biomass and probably couldn’t identify any willow tree except a weeping one. On that day I was introduced to a concept that would steer the course of my professional life. The idea of planting fast growing trees to help tackle climate change sounded like a great idea. I believed that then and I believe it now. It’s a shame that 30 years later the concept has still yet to become part of mainstream agriculture.
Achieving that goal has become my life’s work. I have been a willow breeder, worked with power stations and as the renewable energy officer at Dorset County Council. For 20 years I have been running Crops for Energy – a consultancy that provides advice on every aspect of the supply chain. These days I say that my interests lie “Beyond Bioenergy”. I love the fact that these crops can play a part in both climate change adaptation and mitigation by providing many environmental applications whilst they are growing (e.g. flood mitigation, carbon sequestration, buffer strips etc) and produce a diverse range of sustainable biomaterials for all sorts of end uses.
If the UK is to upscale a tiny, nascent industry and make up for lost ground, we need landowners to be able to make agile decisions based on up to date, independent information. This is where the idea for Envirocrops was born. I have written hundreds of reports as a consultant. However, these represent valid information at the point they are presented to the client. With the Envirocrops project we are building a digital consultant that benefits from all the technology we take for granted in modern livingprice comparison, digital directory and marketplace, AI chat functionality, an interactive STEM game. Furthermore, Envirocrops will act like a very refined search engine getting people to the information they need and helping everyone along the supply chain.
As the CHCx3 project starts producing results will begin adding them to the portal and Envirocrops will grow. It’s particularly exciting to be working alongside Farm Carbon Toolkit as both of these tools will benefit from the others knowledge and put that into the hands of farmers.
The CHCx3 project is funded by DEFRA under the Farming Futures R&D Fund: Climate Smart Farming. It forms part of DEFRA’s Farming Innovation Programme delivered in partnership with innovate UK.
Kevin Lindegaard talking to CHCx3 project colleagues beside willow and miscanthus trials at a meeting at NIAB Huntingdon in January 2025.
