Regenerative agriculture as a climate change solution

The agricultural sector is highly impacted by climate change. Extreme weather events such as extended periods of drought and heavy rainfall adversely affect production yields. At the same time, it is also an important driver thereof. Currently, the sector is responsible for just under one quarter of total global GHG emissions. 

Regenerative agriculture is one solution that can help the sector both in terms of adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. In the following we will give a brief introduction to regenerative agriculture and then proceed to discuss its role as a climate change solution. 

What is regenerative agriculture?

While there is no universal definition of regenerative agriculture, it generally refers to a set of farming principles and practices with the aim of conserving and rehabilitating food production and farming systems. This includes paying special attention to efficient water management, increasing biodiversity, soil health restoration, carbon sequestration and climate change resilience. 

Below you can find a brief outline of four key techniques that are generally applied in regenerative agriculture. 

Conservation tillage. Tillage significantly contributes to soil erosion, thereby releasing carbon to the atmosphere. Adopting no or low-tillage practices reduces disturbance to soil and enhances soil organic matter, resulting in a healthier growth environment for crops while also storing more carbon. 

Intercropping. Intercropping refers to practices where multiple crops are planted on the same field. This diversity helps create nutrient-rich soil, leading to higher production yields. 

Crop rotation and cover crops. Cover crops are generally not planted for harvest, but to cover the soil focusing on avoiding soil erosion. As for crop rotation, planting the same crop in the same field without rotation results in soil that is rich is some nutrients while lacking others. Rotating crops ensures that there is a wide variety of nutrients in the soil. 

Avoiding chemicals. Pesticides and fertilizers are generally not applied to avoid disturbance of natural ecosystem processes. The task of these products is taken over by the natural pest and disease management capability of regenerative agricultural practices. 

Its role as an adaptation and mitigation solution

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, both chronic and acute. Chronic events include changing precipitation patterns, temperature, and sea level rise; while acute events include heatwaves, droughts, heavy rainfall, cyclones, and floods. These effects lead to a lack of supply chain resilience and hence food security without adequate action. 

On the adaptation side, regenerative agriculture can help farmers enhance resilience towards climate change through the key techniques mentioned above. Apart from risk management, it also helps to lower input requirements, resulting in reduced costs. 

In terms of mitigation, regenerative agriculture has great potential to reverse the trend of rising emissions in food production since it enhances the carbon sequestration capacity of soil. The IPCC estimates that it has the potential of mitigating between 0.11 billion and 5.86 billion tons of CO2 equivalents annually. 

Nevertheless, measuring carbon avoided in this context always comes with great uncertainty and should not be viewed as a silver bullet towards climate change. Hence the focus should lie on regenerative agriculture as a key solution to ecosystem restoration, thereby ensuring long-term food security.