Regenerative Agriculture for Soil Health, Food and Environmental Security
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2021-06-26
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Abstract
Regenerative Agriculture (RA) is a comprehensive system of farming combining a number of cultivation practices specifically focussing on regenerating top-soil to restore degraded soil biodiversity, rebuild soil organic matter, and improve water retention and nutrient uptake. Relentless depletion of biodiversity, degradation of soil health (SH), and change in climate have necessitated reversing the direction of agriculture from “degeneration to regeneration”. RA also helps in mitigating climate change (CC) by arresting soil organic carbon (SOC), while allowing farmers to maintain productivity growth, and farm income. Fundamentally, RA ‘does no harm’ to the land, rather improves it, using innovations that regenerate and revitalize the soil and environment through adopting practices of conservation agriculture (no-till, soil cover, crop diversification), increased use of compost/ animal manures, recycling waste to ameliorate soil biology and cantering on regulated grazing, mixed cropping/intercropping, etc. leading to healthy soils to produce nutrient rich and high-quality food. Agriculture is both the victim and cause of ongoing depletion of vital natural resources (NR) -soil, water, air, biodiversity, etc. When in good health, these natural assets nurture productivity growth necessary for food security, minimize the effect of CC and improve biodiversity inspiring sustainable development of agriculture. On the contrary, degradation in health of NRs destabilizes agricultural growth, compromising food, and environmental security. Whether it is degeneration in soil fertility, biodiversity depletion or CC, the epicentre is loss of SH and land quality. Currently, world-wide one billion ha of land area is affected by soil degradation (India’s share ~10 %). In India, the Green Revolution (GR) based agricultural practices have paid good dividends in a short span of time and as a result the country became not only self-sufficient in food but also a net food exporting nation. However, as the time rolled by, these practiceshigh yielding varieties having narrow genetic base, monoculture, cereal-cereal rotations, repeated tillage, exclusive use of agro-chemicals, excessive irrigation, etc. started weakening agricultural sustainability with declining partial factor productivity and plateauing output growth rates. Continuing such impassivity has led to degradation of SH because of mining more and replenishing less nutrients. Deterioration in SH in turn became a source of biodiversity loss, build-up of contaminants and pollutants, and rising spectre of CC whose consequences remain uncertain and unpredictable. By now, it is well known that around deteriorating SH nucleates food and nutritional security, farm income, ecological integrity, and global warming/CC. India or for that matter any other country can hardly afford to live with this kind of adverse developments that are at odds with the sustainable growth of agriculture. Therefore, several alternative systems of farming (ASF) to revive SH have been proposed from time to time. Low input sustainable agriculture (LISA), conservation agriculture (CA), organic farming (OF), natural farming (NF), and zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) are some prominent ASFs recommended to replace or strengthen modern agriculture. While majority of the ASFs protect SH but fail to raise the bar of needed productivity growth. However, among the proposed ASFs, CA has received the maximum attention, being practiced in 102 countries over 205 million ha area covering more than 15 per cent of annual croplands globally and expanding at 10.5 per cent annually. Recently, RA is being projected as a holistic approach for improving soil and environmental health and increased biodiversity leading to productive farms, healthy society, and better economy of farming community. The RA was proposed by Rodale Institute, USA during 1980s with the aim to rejuvenate SH, sequester carbon, conserve water, improve drainage, and mitigate CC – all for the benefit of productivity-led surge in food security. It focuses on an aggregate of farming methods that harness power of soil biology to build SOC, inspire application of native resources, reduce disturbance to soil, and soil cover; rationalize consumption of fertilizers, use of water, fossil fuel and other synthetic practices. Conceptually, RA philosophy does so by responding compressively for enhancement of soil biology to build SOC. Centrality of SOC in building SH draws strength because tenets of a healthy soil necessary for building food security and mitigate CC are deeply rooted in the concept and content. The positive influence on SH in RA happens as SOC: perks up soil biology favouring carbon sequestration; maintaining soil fertility; regulate water holding and transmission characteristics, provide short-term relief from drought and CC. Thus, RA process in totality targets enhancing and sustainably conserving soil ecosystem for a sustainable production system and mitigate CC. The RA concept, though 40-year in existence, has rarely been discussed and deliberated in India. Hence, to amplify its philosophy, vision, and goal, Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) jointly with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), National Academy of Agriculture Sciences (NAAS), International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) organized a Brainstorming Session (BSS) on “Regenerative Agriculture for Soil Health, Food and Environmental Security” on 26 June 2021. Over 75 diverse stakeholders including science leaders, natural resource/social/animal scientists from National Agricultural Research System (NARS) and International Organizations, Functionaries of Development Departments, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and farmer representatives participated and deliberated on all aspects of RA. The BSS focused on the following three objectives: z To discuss potential role of organic farming, zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) and conservation agriculture towards regenerative agriculture so critical for improving soil health, mitigating CC and long-term food security .To assess the expected returns (social, economic and environmental) over the investments towards Agriculture Research and Innovation for Development (ARI4D) on RA z To have better understanding for prioritizing R&D efforts on modern and traditional agricultural practices that contribute to RA .
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TAAS, 2021. Regenerative Agriculture for Soil Health, Food and Environmental Security: Proceedings and Recommendations. Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), Avenue II, Pusa Campus, New Delhi. vii+30 p