texfash: Inagro emphasizes applied, demonstration-based research across crops. How often do your innovations — such as hemp fibre processing protocols from Hemp4Circularity — translate into sustainable, scalable adoption by real farms and mills beyond pilot trials?
Sophie Waegebaert: We actively cooperate with flax growers, farmers and scutchers. We follow their fields and are involved during the processing of the hemp. Inagro is an applied research institute. So, our innovations and results are often used by farmers.
Hemp4Circularity trials cover just 3 ha per project year. Is that scale adequate for generating credible and transferable insights? When do you expect your findings to be validated in a full-fledged commercial hemp textile chain?
Sophie Waegebaert: The project follows 9 ha each year. On these fields we measure the plants and try to collect as much data as possible. Next to this, we are in contact with a large group of farmers in France, Belgium and the Netherlands to learn about their experience with the hemp cultivation and processing. Also, with Safilin, Libeco and the Alliance for European Linen-Flax and Hemp, we are in contact with the processing industry and fashion. So, we believe that the scale in the project is adequate.
Hemp’s behaviour on flax spinning lines has shown processing difficulties tied to moisture content and equipment mismatch. Do your research protocols and recommendations account for real mechanisation constraints in mills that haven’t modified infrastructure?
Sophie Waegebaert: We advise as well as possible about how to grow, harvest, bale and store hemp. So, we advise on baling the hemp at a humidity below 15% as we have seen that high moisture content causes problems in the downstream processing.
Safilin and Libeco test the hemp fibres and yarns in order to adapt their mills. So yes, the project goes beyond labscale experimentation. In the end, our goal is to establish a working value chain in which all stakeholders can work with the produced hemp fibres.
Hemp4Circularity has multiple regional partners spanning Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. However, growing and processing conditions differ wildly. How do you balance designing standard protocols with the diverse realities of soil, climate, and machinery?
Sophie Waegebaert: The protocols for growing hemp are the same for the different regions at the beginning of the project. E.g.: Farmers take soil samples to know the nitrogen residue in the soil and to fertilise the soil accordingly. After sowing, plant parameters are measured. This enables us to learn how the plants are behaving, depending on the region and climate conditions. This gives us valuable insights and gives us a chance to adapt the protocols per region or climate situation.
Regarding the machinery, the German partner Natuvalis cooperates with the Belgian partner Hyler to transport the harvesting machine to Germany in order to make the harvest possible. Processing of the hemp is done in the Netherlands. For the processing unit (scutching line) it, is also interesting to receive hemp straw from different regions and to build more experience.
