Meaning:
Regenerative Agriculture describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle.
Difference between Conventional and Regenerative Agriculture:
- Conventional: focuses on optimum production of one crop
- Regenerative: optimum creation of relationships
Examples:
I) No-till farming:
– Soil is full of organisms that are useful for plants:
- Some convert soil nitrogen to plant usable form
- Some bring water to the plants that would otherwise be out of reach
- Some loosen and aerate the soil increasing water absorption capacity and help penetrate the plants’ roots deeper.
– When tilling is done, most of the organisms are killed so now the crops must rely on chemical fertilisers that end up leaching the groundwater.
– Solutions:
- Plant cover crops whose roots break the soil
- Introduce the worms that breakdown and aerate the soil
- Cover the soil with organic mulch that adds more organic matter to the soil
II) Regenerative Grazing:
– From the release of methane and clearing of the forest, cattle grazing is considered environment destructive.
– Solution:
- With the right practices, enormous amounts of carbon can be suppressed into the ground, soil can be built and even desertification can be eliminated.
- Grass eaten before time —> growth will never speed up —> no methane absorption —> overgrazing
- If animals are kept in the tightly packed arrangement, grass can be grown before getting eaten
- Not all grass is eaten, some of it is stepped or excreted upon —> new humus-rich topsoil
III) Agro-Forestry:
– One of the most complex and location depended on practices
– Starts by observing the local forests and establishing correlations
– Recreating these forests with an up-gradation —> food forests
– Every layer of the food forest produces some kind of food or medicines or helps in maintaining the system as a whole.
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