From improving soil health to tackling climate change: Here are the multiple benefits of Regenerative Agriculture
“Regenerative Agriculture” is a system or farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, sequesters carbon and enhances biodiversity at the farm scale.
In view of the current degradation of biodiversity and soil fertility, it is the need of the hour to reverse the direction of global farming from “degenerative” to “regenerative” approaches.
In other words, the practice of regenerative agriculture actually improves the land and mitigate climate change, using technologies and efficient methods that regenerate and revitalize the soil as well as the environment
Practices associated with Regenerative Farming
• Minimising or avoiding tillage
• Eliminating bare soil to reduce soil erosion
• Fostering plant diversity
• Avoiding monocultures
• Reduction or elimination of synthetic chemicals
• Planned grazing
• Diversified production systems
• Encouraging water percolation into the soil
• Integrating livestock and cropping operations
Benefits of Regenerative Agriculture
According to experts, regenerative agriculture builds organic matter back into the soil, effectively storing more water and drawing more carbon out of the atmosphere.
Realising the importance of a resilient food system is to the corporate sector, PepsiCo – in April 2021 – launched a new ‘Positive Agriculture’ ambition in order to spread regenerative farming practices across 7 million acres, thereby eliminating at least 3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by the end of the decade.
With an aim to reduce soil disturbance through no-till farming practices, regenerative agriculture is, no doubt, indispensable to improving soil health.
Not only this, this holistic land management practice benefits the long-term profitability and enrich the resiliency of farmers also.