A new project is exploring how plant-based construction materials could be produced from wetland crops grown in the Broads and Fens.
Two partnerships in East Anglia have secured grants totalling £845,000 from Natural England's Paludiculture Exploration Fund, aimed at developing profitable farming systems while reducing carbon emissions from lowland peat soils.
They include the "FibreBroads" project, which has been awarded £395,000 to investigate how commercial crops grown on rewetted peat - known as paludiculture - could provide sustainable new incomes for Broadland farmers.
It is investigating the potential for plant fibres to manufacture building materials such as insulation boards, cavity wall insulation and fibreboard, as well as clothing, potting compost alternatives and compostable plates.
The project aims to connect growers with construction businesses such as Hudson Architects, who will work with Norwich University of the Arts to test paludiculture products and assess their potential as construction materials.
There are also plans to create a prototype building to raise awareness about sustainable future construction.
Broads Authority environment and policy adviser Andrea Kelly said: "The Broads Peat Partnership is delighted to have been awarded this funding by Defra.
"Working with peatland farmers, we will assess where change is possible and test novel propagation methods and wetland crop systems. This funding will help farmers to develop business networks around the most viable products.
"The project will build on learning from existing wetland crops being grown on marginal land at the Horsey Estate in Norfolk. Two crops are already being grown here: reed for roof thatching and reedmace which is used to clean water, as well as for construction materials."
The idea of producing commercial materials from wetlands like the Broads is not new, as reed has been traditionally harvested for thatching for centuries.
But Defra has now identified more than 80 native UK wetland plant species with potential for energy, food, fodder, raw material and medicinal use.
Among them are bulrush, or typha, whose many uses include the manufacture of fibreboard and lightweight aggregates for the building industry. It can also be used as a bioenergy crop or in clothing.
Another key goal of the funded projects is to improve environmental resilience and lower carbon emissions.
Lowland peatlands in the Fens and the Broads are some of the most productive soils in the UK, but when drained for agriculture they release millions of years of carbon into the atmosphere.
Paludiculture reverses this process by rewetting soils so they become a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide.
The Broads Authority says there is an estimated 27,356ha of deep peat and 65,544ha of "wasted peat" in Norfolk and Suffolk, which could play an important role in mitigating climate change while remaining a farmed landscape.
The Defra-funded FibreBroads Project runs until March 2025 and its other partners include Norfolk County Council, Norfolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), Wetland Products Foundation and global impact firm Palladium.
Another beneficiary of the Paludiculture Exploration Fund is Fenland Soil, which secured a grant of £450,000 to run until April 2025.
Its project will be split into two major parts - a commercial-scale paludiculture trial in the Fens, and the expansion of a previous "landscape opportunity mapping" campaign to create four new internal drainage boards (IDBs) covering a total area of 25,601ha.
The partnership says maintaining water levels just below the soil surface, at a depth of 10-30cm, ensures greenhouse gas emissions from lowland peat soils are minimised, while offering opportunities for growing new crops suited to wetter growing conditions.
Megan Hudson, general manager of Fenland Soil, said: "At Fenland Soil we continue to move forward, bringing growers, industry, government, academia and environmental groups together to find practical solutions to farming lowland agricultural peat.
"This award gives us a real opportunity to explore the commercial opportunities for wet crops and if a viable commercial market can be created.”
Fenland Soil will be collaborating with Cranfield University, NIAB (National Institute of Agricultural Botany), the Centre for Landscape Regeneration and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
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