Ponda Featured on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Farming Today’: Exploring the Future of Paludiculture

We are thrilled to share that Ponda was recently featured on BBC Radio 4’s flagship agricultural programme, Farming Today! Our Agricultural Lead, Austin Shepherd, sat down with the BBC team to discuss a subject we are deeply passionate about: paludiculture.

What exactly is Paludiculture? If you are new to the term, paludiculture is the practice of farming on wetlands, such as bogs, fens, and re-wetted peatlands. Instead of draining these landscapes for conventional agriculture—a practice that damages the ecosystem—paludiculture embraces the water, allowing for the cultivation of crops in a way that works with the wetland environment rather than against it.

Why Keeping Peat Wet Matters The environmental stakes surrounding our wetlands are incredibly high. The UK’s peatlands are a massive carbon sink, storing an estimated 3 billion tonnes of carbon. When peatlands are drained, the exposed peat oxidises and releases this stored carbon into the atmosphere as CO2, directly contributing to global warming.

By keeping the peat wet through paludiculture, we can lock that carbon safely in the earth while still making the land agriculturally productive.

Recognising the urgent need to protect these landscapes, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) recently awarded grants to 12 pioneering projects dedicated to exploring how we can successfully grow crops in lowland peat.

Putting it into Practice Real-world exploration is already underway. The Holker Estate, located on the beautiful southern coast of Cumbria, is one of the sites actively investigating the commercial and environmental potential of paludiculture, paving the way for a more sustainable future in farming.

Want to learn more about how wet farming works and Ponda’s role in this exciting agricultural shift?

🎧 Listen to the full BBC Radio 4 episode featuring our Agricultural Lead, Austin Shepherd, here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002tptf

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