Chip, chip, hooray!
Manure from salmon farmer’s biogas plant passes potato grower’s field trials
Results from a farming experiment in Leynar, a community on Streymoy, the largest of the Faroe Islands, show that bio-organic manure from salmon farmer Bakkafrost’s FÖRKA biogas plant works well for growing potatoes.
Earlier this year local farmer Poul Adrian í Homrum planted 12,000 potatoes, all fertilised with bio-organic manure instead of the imported artificial manure that is a common choice in the Faroe Islands.
The most important thing for Homrum was to find out if bio-organic manure can be used for this purpose. And the results showed it could.
“We are proud of endorsing and being the provider of innovative farming initiatives like this,” stated Bakkafrost on Facebook. “We hope to see similar projects in the near future.”
Strond hatchery
The FÖRKA facility uses bio-organic waste from Bakkafrost’s Strond hatchery to produce biogas with an energy value of 1.120 MWh, equivalent to the annual electricity use of 225 households. The facility also uses cow manure.
Last year, 2.4 % of Faroe Island’s renewable electricity production in 2022 came from the biogas plant, enough for 1,900 homes. It also provided heat for 400 homes.
FÖRKA produced 30,345 tonnes of natural liquid fertiliser in 2022 for redistribution to the Faroese agricultural sector, reducing the need for imported fertiliser and contributing to lower CO2 emissions.
