Ireland will host the 2022 World Ploughing Contest alongside the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co Laois this September.

The National Ploughing Association (NPA) event will commence 20 September while the 67th world contest will be held alongside it on the 21 and 22 September.

The announcement follows the decision by the World Ploughing Organisation (WPO) last month not to hold the world contest in Russia this year due to the country's “atrocious” invasion of Ukraine.

Over the last number of weeks, meetings were held between the World Ploughing Organisation (WPO) and the NPA with the final decision being ratified on Wednesday.

The very best international ploughing competitors and their teams will be battling it out on Irish soil in September to become supreme World Champions

World Ploughing Organisation general secretary Anna Marie McHugh said: “I am delighted today to announce that 25 countries from all over the globe from Africa to Australia will be participating in this year’s World Ploughing Contest in Ireland.

The executive of the National Ploughing Association announced on Wednesday that the World Ploughing for 2022 will be held along with the National Ploughing Championships at Ratheniska, Co Laois, on 20 to 22 September. \ Alf Harvey

“The very best international ploughing competitors and their teams will be battling it out on Irish soil in September to become supreme World Champions.”

McHugh said there will be “huge excitement” in Ireland as the World Ploughing Contest comes to Laois for the first time with “crowds of hundreds of thousands in attendance and 1,700 exhibitors expected”.

The World Ploughing Contest was last held in Ireland in Carlow in 2006, alongside the national event.