19 December 2023
As part of the Interreg NWE Hemp4Circularity project, Hemp textile cultivation trials have been successfully carried out in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
The Interreg project "Hemp4Circularity" (H4C) aims to integrate hemp cultivation into the textile value chain in the North West Europe (NWE) region. Starting in March 2023, the project incorporates a wide range of activities, including field trials and crop monitoring in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
These initial activities have made it possible to collect essential data on various parameters, including plant density after sowing and at harvest time. The straws were parallelized in the same way as fibre flax, using the Sativa 200 machine from Hyler, a HEMP4CIRCULARITY partner.
They were then retted, turned and baled, before being transported to the barns and stored there, awaiting scutching.
All the data collected over the summer will now be subjected to statistical analysis, so that the results can be understood.
On the whole, the crops grew satisfactorily. They were also able to be retted and baled on schedule, despite a slight delay in the harvesting phase. This delay is attributable to the extremely wet conditions over the summer, which led to a late harvest of the straw, mainly between mid-August and the end of August. The quality of the retted straw will be assessed during the next stages of the project, namely scutching and spinning.
The Hemp4Circularity project encompasses all stages of the hemp processing chain. Whether you're a grower, dyer, spinner, weaver, knitter or designer, if you're interested in the potential of textile hemp, we urge you to get in touch. The coming months will bring a range of activities to pique your interest.
These include training sessions for farmers and entrepreneurs starting this winter. Or a training course to train ambassadors for textile hemp will be scheduled for 2025. There will also be workshops and conferences for brands.
Contacts :
texandtech@allianceflaxlinenhemp.eu
communication@valbiom.be
"Fermes et Dépendances" (Farms and Outbuildings), a book about the modern faces of agriculture
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