Aligning science and policy of regenerative agriculture

Abstract

Scientific findings since the 1980s indicate conventional agriculture (CONVA) accounts for 8 to 12% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, or 23% of the country's total anthropogenic forcing of climate change. In contrast, according to the United Nations Environmental Programs (UNEP), regenerative agriculture (RA) practices, such as, no‐till (NT) has helped reduce emission of 241 Tg of carbon dioxide (CO2) since the 1970s. U.S. Farm Bills and other international policies have helped encourage adoption of RA practices, such as NT, but major challenges remain, if a potential climate change impact of CONVA is to be reduced. One approach would be to adopt more efficient and robust production systems such as RA. Regenerative agriculture is designed to minimize external inputs and off‐site impacts, and has globally been adopted on ∼180 M ha, with the most common U.S. practice being NT on 22.6% of the cropland. Currently, the economic benefits of RA are the most evident on smallholder farms, where higher yields and decreased labor for land preparation including weeding (9 and 19 d ha−1, respectively) have been recorded. A greater RA return to labor compared with CONVA suggests it may be an efficient low‐input farming approach that requires less energy and reduces waste while sustaining productivity and perhaps increasing profitability within a semi‐closed system. No‐till is used here to illustrate the proposed system because it reduces CO2 release into the atmosphere and increases surface‐layer SOC storage. Globally, there is significant room for RA improvement, confirming the need for additional research and technology transfer along with robust policy articulation.

Gully Erosion Susceptibility Assessment in the Kondoran Watershed Using Machine Learning Algorithms and the Boruta Feature Selection

“…Distance to streams and elevation cannot change; meanwhile, restoration and development of the degraded land might change the land use and decrease the susceptibility to gully erosion [70,71]. Additionally, sustainable soil management could be achieved by afforestation of the barren lands and regenerative agriculture techniques in areas most susceptible to gully erosion [72,73].…”

Perennial groundcovers: an emerging technology for soil conservation and the sustainable intensification of agriculture

“…Previously, C sequestration rates in turfgrassesleading PGC candidateshave been estimated to range from 0.34 to 1.0 Mg ha −1 year −1 , which is comparable to C sequestration rates reported for land in the USA Conservation Reserve Program [70][71][72]. However, local C sequestration via PGC systems like other RA practiceswill be strongly influenced by primary productivity, initial SOM, temperature, soil texture, soil water conditions, and soil microbial communities [73].…”

“…Increases in SOM in PGC systems, and concomitant improvements in soil aggregate stability and porosity, improve infiltration, water storage capacity, and water use efficiency [76]. By forming a barrier to evaporation acting as a living mulch -PGC can further increase soil water content compared to conventionally tilled systems [73,79].…”

Future agricultures: The promise and pitfalls of a (re)turn to nature

“…Underpinned by the science of ecology and systems thinking, and generally oriented to strengthening smaller scale producers and local food networks, proposals include organic farming (Muller et al, 2017), agroecology (Altieri, 1995), permaculture (Suh, 2014), climate-smart agriculture (Lipper et al, 2014), food sovereignty (Wittman, 2011) and others. In recent years efforts to develop and promote alternative agricultures have begun to coalesce around the language of ‘agroecological principles’ (HLPE, 2019) ‘regeneration’ and ‘regenerative agriculture’ (Sherwood and Uphoff, 2000; Al-Kaisi and Lal, 2021; cf. Giller et al, 2021).…”