16 Irish farms are embarking on a European Union (EU) backed project focused on rebuilding healthy soil.

The European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI) funded project will be overseen by farming organisation, Talamh Beo.

The project has participant farms of different scale, land type and enterprise, including horticulture, dairy, tillage, woodland and agroforestry.

Talamh Beo used water catchments rather than counties to select participants for the project, due to the link between soil and water filtration and storage.

Each participant farmer will take part in a course with some of the world's leading scientists.

The organisation says this will not only improve their understanding of how soil functions, but will offer practical knowledge on how to kick-start sleepy or degraded ground.

Participants will trial and document technical and physical innovations on their farms, discussing and sharing their experiences in a Knowledge Transfer (KT) group.

Joanne Butler, who is a small-scale grower in Co. Donegal, is among the participants in the project:

Cork dairy farmer, Ger Buckley, who is also taking part in the project said he has spent the past 30 years learning how to feed grass - but now he wants to learn how to feed the soil.

"We don’t have food security if we’re dependent on imported fertiliser and fossil fuels," he said.

Talamh Beo says participants are hoping, having completed the project, to reduce and/or remove synthetic fertilisers from their operations.

Talamh Beo also believes the project could be a resource to local authorities, environmental networks, schools and colleges.

The announcement of the project coincides with World Soils Day (Sunday, December 5).

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has highlighted the threat posed by soil salinisation to global food security and warned that many countries still lack adequate capacity for soil analysis.