Regenerative Agriculture: Why Is It Important?

Many natural resources are a requisite for agricultural operations in order to have a successful crop yield. As we know, natural resources are limited on the earth and are being exploited at a speedy rate pertaining to the growing demands, we need to devise techniques that will help in restoring and conserving them. Hence, we need to follow regenerative agricultural practices that will not only aid in producing higher yields but also help in replenishing natural resources.

What is Regenerative Agriculture?

Regenerative agriculture includes agricultural practices and principles that help to improve and replenish the whole farm environment by improving soil health over the years along with managing the optimum use of water, fertilizers, and other inputs. This mode of agriculture follows methods that help to improve the resources that are being used rather than making them redundant.

Why is Regenerative Agriculture Important?

Pertaining to the current population explosion and growing food demand, the agriculture industry needs to boost its production capacity heavily. The agricultural process requires the usage of various natural resources and chemicals in order to produce higher crop yields of good quality. In such a scenario, one must not ignore the fact that the natural resources are limited and can get exhausted in the near future if proper restoration strategies are not followed. Regenerative agriculture can play a vital role in replenishing the natural resources that are being used.

How Regenerative Agriculture Can Help Farmers?

Below are some of the vital methods that one can follow to adopt regenerative farming:

• Conservation Tillage: Plowing and tilling have their own disadvantages. When a farmer plows or tills soil before sowing, the soil health gets disturbed. The soil gets eroded heavily and carbon stored in it is released disturbing the balance of soil microbes. By following negligible tillage practice, soil with better organic components is not disturbed. This evidently helps in improving soil health substantially for a long duration.
• Diversity: Microbes in the soil require carbohydrates to form essential nutrients for growing plants. Various plants release different types of carbohydrates that are quite essential for microbes. The increased release of carbohydrates by plants can help improve soil health. Increasing the plantation of a variety of crops and plants will help the farmers to have an increased amount of crop yield of good quality.
• Rotation and Cover Crops: Exposed soil can deteriorate adversely as the soil nutrients may get washed away or destroyed through erosion. Hence the soil needs to have cover crops to maintain its quality and health which can be advantageous for farmers in the long run. On the other hand, a farmer should not stick to harvesting a single type of crop. Rather they must carefully use cover crops and different types of crops over the years in order to maintain soil nutrients and quality. Farming different crops can help improve the soil nutrient ingredients while a single crop can only develop specific nutrients restricting the availability of other nutrients.
• Minimizing Disturbances: Inappropriate application of various agrochemicals on the soil during farming can affect the health and quality of soil adversely. The application should be minimal or appropriate in order to minimize soil disturbance. This will help maintain microbes and nutrients in the soil for a longer period of time.
• Regenerative Agriculture and Climatic Changes: In the current scenario, the climatic conditions have drastically changed across the world. These climatic changes can affect soil health and quality drastically. Like in the event of a flood, erosion washes off all the organic matter and essential nutrients making the soil useless for a specific period of time. So, certain steps should be adopted to improve the soil’s water-holding capacity to withstand heavy rainfall and droughts. Therefore, farmers should take up regenerative agriculture practices as it helps to form organic matter in the soil and the level of organic matter decides the water holding capacity. This will help the soil withstand adverse conditions maintaining or replenishing its quality.

Regenerative agriculture is an important practice that needs to be taken up by farmers across the world. Sustainable farming methods will help us restore the balance of the natural resources on the earth. Otherwise, with the exponential population growth and demands, natural resources will be exhausted within a few decades. Regenerative agriculture in the agricultural industry can help maintain and restore soil along with reducing the wastage of water. In India, sustainable agriculture is being promoted by many agri-tech companies and the government. DeHaat is one such agri-tech organization that helps educate and train farmers in sustainable agriculture methods. They have robust on-ground teams that enable them to reach farmers across every corner of the country. Over the past few years, lakhs of farmers have been associated with DeHaat. They have learned and implemented sustainable agricultural techniques that have aided them in producing higher yields of good quality without affecting the climate adversely. DeHaat aims to furnish all kinds of support to each and every farmer across India that will make them financially independent and have fruitful farming endeavors.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What does regenerative agriculture mean?

A: Regenerative agriculture is a type of farming that focuses on improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, and reducing the use of synthetic products. This includes practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, reduced tillage, and integration of livestock. The goal of regenerative agriculture is to create a sustainable and resilient agricultural system that benefits both the environment and the farmer.

Q: Is regenerative agriculture the solution to climate change?

A: Regenerative agriculture is one of the solutions to climate change, but it is not the only solution. It has the potential to isolate carbon in soils, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the resilience of agricultural systems to the impacts of climate change. However, it is important to note that regenerative agriculture alone cannot solve the complex issue of climate change. This requires other efforts such as reducing fossil fuel emissions, protecting forests, and transitioning to renewable energy sources.