The statistical records presented on World Soil Day in 2014 indicate that all topsoils would be exhausted in 60 years if current soil surface degradation rates were unchecked. Since it takes 1,000 years for 3 cm of topsoil to spontaneously deposit, it is necessary to act immediately to stop this from happening. Regenerative agriculture is crucial in assisting humans in overcoming these difficulties. It reduces soil disturbance on a mechanical, biological, and chemical level.
Some Best Regenerative Agricultural Practices
1. Covering Crops
Crops are effective scavengers of extra nutrients left in the soil after crop harvesting. The additional nutrients could be regenerated at the beginning of the next planting season after being added to their biomass and stored. Cover crops can also help lessen agricultural runoff and possible fertiliser leaching into groundwater and watersheds. Legumes can be used as cover crops to reduce the need for nitrogen fertilisers the following season to fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil.
2. Integration of Animals into Agriculture
In many ways, combining animal grazing with crop production makes sense. For instance, grazing animals after yearly crop harvesting helps turn high-carbon residues into low-carbon organic manure. Increased carbon absorption in your soils and nitrogen cycling from crop to compost are two benefits of grazing on cover crops. Many of the difficulties and dangers connected with the concentrated feeding of animals may get reduced by this method. Because of its advantages for the environment, animal welfare, and soil health, animal integration is a fundamental element of regenerative farming approaches.
3. Silvopasture
Silvopasture is the coexistence of tree-growing and animal grazing on the same land. In essence, it creates grazing within a controlled tree product business. However, silvopasture has advantages beyond conventionally managed grazing; it increases profits and lowers costs for tree businesses. Between the trees, native perennial forages are cultivated. Forage crops provide nourishment for animals, which also hasten the cycling of carbon and nutrients into the soil. Additionally, this method might offer animals shelter from the sun and wind during the sweltering summer months.
4. Agroforestry
Agroforestry includes silvopasture, but the method employs a broader range of tools intending to drastically alter vast agricultural landscapes with positive consequences on the environment, society, and the economy. Agroforestry also comprises silvopasture in addition to forest farming, riparian forests acting as barriers between agricultural areas and watersheds, windbreaks, and silvopasture.
5. Controlled Grazing
During controlled grazing, a fodder area is split. The divides can be created using moveable fences. The animals can then be alternated between the divisions regularly, depending on the number of animals, the rate of forage regrowth, and the breadth of the divisions. Animals are then routinely switched between divisions after that to promote division healing and regrowth.
This approach will provide animals with high-quality nutrients while increasing water penetration and reducing runoff and soil erosion. Additionally, this approach will improve soil health through the continued plant and root development and carbon sequestration to increase the quantity of organic matter in the soil.
Final Thoughts
Combining these techniques from regenerative agriculture in a purposeful, planned, and controlled way improves soil health, increases plant diversity, lowers agricultural runoff, prevents soil erosion, and creates a habitat for local flora and wildlife. By using techniques like forest farming, producing a second crop between rows of a tree crop, harnessing wildlife that thrives in riparian buffers of forests, and allowing for the integration of grazing with tree operations, these activities economically give new revenue streams.
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