A Welsh marine biostimulant start-up has been given the go-ahead to expand two sea farms.
Now entering its third year of seaweed biostimulant trials, Câr-y-Môr has just been granted a marine licence from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to expand two existing sea farms in the Ramsey Sound off Pembrokeshire.
In March, the community benefit society (CBS) published results of seaweed biostimulant trials funded by the Co-op Foundation’s Carbon Innovation Fund. They showed that when synthetic fertiliser was cut by 40% and the seaweed biostimulant was applied to potato fields, fertiliser was reduced by 25% and 29%. Similar results were seen with conventional grassland, with a yield increase of 29% and no loss in quality.
This backed up earlier trials of a 24% yield increase on organic potatoes, and an 18% yield increase on silage (equivalent to £92 per hectare uplift) when the biostimulant was added to the existing fertiliser programme.
“Câr-y-Môr is a growing community of 700 members and working partners, all committed to forging a sea farming industry for Wales and beyond,” said Beth Marshall, Câr-y-Môr’s Marine Biologist who led the marine licence application.
“NRW’s approval is the result of years of feedback and collaboration between the team, volunteers and stakeholders, as well as strong advocacy from local people and businesses.
“It gives us the scope to scale our operations: to harvest more zero-input seaweed for biostimulant use on the land.”
