Can Agriculture Be Regenerative?

Ever wondered what would happen if the soil could no longer bring life to seeds? Maybe you haven’t, but as you think about it now, you probably don’t believe that day would ever come, but the arable topsoil has been depleting. As it continues, soil scientists have estimated that in about 50 years from now, we wouldn’t have enough arable soil for farming, which means if we don’t find a way to properly maintain the topsoil or regain what has been lost, a lot of acres of farmland will become unproductive soon.

Regenerative Agriculture

What can we do to ensure the soil for farming remains productive? Regenerative Agriculture. According to Regeneration International, “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.” While there are different practices, we should note that these practices offer more than just the benefits related to Regenerative Agriculture. One of which is the creation of Carbon sinks in the soil, which helps remove excess Carbon from the atmosphere, which naturally contributes to climate change.

Benefits of Regenerative Agriculture

While Regenerative Agriculture helps the soil quality, it also helps to improve the water cycle, which is done by increasing the water holding capacity of the soil. An indication that Regenerative Agriculture offers various benefits to the earth and the atmosphere.

Some of these benefits are:

1. Healthy Soil: By creating drought-resistant soil through the addition of organic matter, Regenerative Agriculture ensures that the earth is healthy and remains healthy.
2. Increased Crop Yields: With this form of farming, getting ahead of conventional agriculture has resulted in better Crop yields as there’s no limitation from climate change or weather.
3. Influences Climate Change: As stated earlier, the Carbon-sinks created helps to capture atmospheric Carbon; this substantially helps reverse climate change damage.
4. Improves Biodiversity: By having different types of crops on the farm, there are more options for sales and a tendency to always have a source of income even if one crop fails to give a significant output in a ranting season. Having different crops means there are other pollinators, which helps to improve yield. If there are livestock animals, then it’s a free supply of biomaterials that will help to add nutrients to the soil and improve the soil quality.

Others include; Improved growth of local economies, improved water cycle of the soil, improved quality of crop yields, etc. So, what are the practices that provide these benefits?

Practices of Regenerative Agriculture

Here are some of the Regenerative Agriculture practices:

1. Composting
2. Agroecology
3. Biochar
4. No-Till Farming
5. Permaculture
6. Aquaculture
7. Silvopasture
8. Crop rotation
9. Cover cropping
10. Cultivating Perennial Crops Etc

Looking a little further into some of these practices will help get a better understanding of Regenerative Agriculture;

1. Composting: Compost is a rich organic material made from decomposed plant and animal materials. Compost contributes nutrients to the soil and allows soil microbes to thrive, and the quality of the topsoil is improved in aiding Regenerative Agriculture.
2. Agroecology: According to Wikipedia, Agroecology is an applied science that studies ecological processes used in agricultural production systems. This science or system ensures that natural means are used on the farm. There are different forms of Agroecology, with Agroforestry and Organic farming being part of it. The use of organic materials on the farm to improve the soil.
3. Biochar: This is a form of charcoal made from plant matter after biomass has been burnt at high temperatures in the absence of oxygen. It serves as a supplement to make the soil better and healthier and also helps to absorb excess Carbon from the atmosphere.
4. No-Till Farming: Instead of breaking up the soil and exposing the ground to erosion and carbon loss, No-Till Farming ensures that the earth is not broken up; this ensures that the soil is held together and not easily washed away. Sometimes, minimum Till farming is also used, which involves tilling but doesn’t require it to be done every season. It prevents carbon loss and aids water retention.
5. Permaculture: This is a design science that considers ecology and focuses on designing human working systems based on the natural ecosystem. This practice requires a better understanding of the science by study.

Just as we have other practices mentioned above, you can still read up on Regenerative Agriculture HERE.

Author: Oluwatobiloba Agboola

Graphics: Timileyin Oladayo

© Food and Agricultural Technology Unit - Pan African Research Group

Edition 1 Volume 3 Article 1