‘SPHAGNUM & TYPHA’ Farm using paludiculture, harvesting plants such as peat moss and cattail.
Sphagnum & Typha used to be a traditional farm with drained hayfields. In the last five years farmer Jean reduced the number of cows and transformed most of his fields into paludiculture.
Jean and his family really enjoyed the whole process of seeing the project come to live. When deciding to change course they had to find a sales market for their crops. A local timber factory was interested and found a way to produce furniture board from cattail. The peat moss goes to a nearby farm where they grow all kinds of vegetables. In the beginning he had to buy hay for his stock, but now Jean dries cattail and only supplements this with hay when necessary.
Jean also got into contact with an agricultural university. Students have been monitoring the fields for three years now. With another group he is working on a project to produce a paper-like material for packaging out of several aquatic plants species.
Jean notes that farmers are managing the landscape as they are being told. Policy has been guiding them for a long time now. But policy for peatlands is still behind. Farmers will need to be paid for what they are doing. More information is the farmers number one thing to convince other famers about peatland restoration as he feels other farmers do not know and don’t fully understand.
Either it blows away when it’s dry, or it oxidises and releases the CO2 that it’s been holding for centuries into the atmosphere.
farmer Jean
