Regenerative Agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to farming systems.
Regenerative agriculture uses methods of planting, cultivating, and harvesting that minimize the interference to the natural systems and encourages biodiversity, water cycling, nutrient cycling and soil fertility.
There are two primary goals of regenerative agriculture. 1) To minimize the cost, toxicity, and pollution from farm inputs. 2) To make the agricultural system more resilient to pest pressure, drought, flood and severe weather events.
Regenerative Agricultural practices seek to build soil health(1) and fertility(2), increase water percolation and retention, increase biodiversity, increase ecosystem health, and reduce carbon emissions.
1) Soil Health is a measure of the physical properties of the soil (texture, structure, porosity, density, aggregate stability, organic matter content and temperature) as well as the biological activity in soil (the numbers and diversity of microorganisms in the soil). Both the physical properties and the biological activity affect water infiltration, erosion, and nutrient cycling.
2) Fertility is a measure of the nutrients available to an agricultural system without inputs from the farmer.
Practitioners of Regenerative Agriculture believe that many man-made agricultural chemical inputs have a deleterious effect on the biological and physical properties of soil. Therefore, if chemical inputs are used intensively or over a long time-frame, they harm the soil’s ability to sustain plant life and therefore increase the cost to manage the system.
Comments