The newly launched Farming for Water European Innovation Project (EIP) has the potential to have a wide-reaching impact, the project’s head has said.

Local Authorities Water Programme lead on Farming for Water Mairead Whitty, said the EIP needs to draw on relationships with the project’s many partners.

“It has the potential to have huge reach if we maximise all those collaboration opportunities. It’s the first time this type of project has been attempted at scale and nature-based solutions are a part of the project,” she said.

Speaking at the Nature-Based Solutions Conference to Protect and Restore Water Quality, Whitty added that project measures proven to be effective can be “applied on a much wider scale”.

Farming for Water is the largest EIP ever seen in the country.

It is planned that up to 15,000 farmers will take part in implementing water quality measures under the €60m EIP.