In recent years,regenerative agriculture, an innovative approach to agricultural systems aimed at making land use even more sustainable through resource rationalization, has also taken hold with increasing vigor in Italy.
A fundamental pillar of regenerative agriculture is in fact the tendency to do better and with more quality but consuming less. So, nourishing plants but without depleting the soil, ensuring good productivity but without negatively impacting biodiversity.
Although the above goals may seem seem irreconcilable, in reality there are certainly not a few examples of regenerative agriculture that have well demonstrated how a more sustainable approach can be taken than has long been the case with industrial agriculture.
Examples of regenerative agriculture: the most commonly used techniques
To demonstrate the actual feasibility of regenerative agriculture, one can call to mind what are the main techniques, much of which have already been used in the past.
Crop rotation
One of these we recently discussed on our website: the crop rotation.
Indeed, it is well known how intensive cultivation of the same portion of land, with the same plant species, forces the land to rapidly lose its original properties, depleting to the point of becoming unproductive.
Through crop rotation and, therefore, by choosing different plant varieties on different portions of land, it is instead possible to enrich the soil of minerals consumed by previous crops, prolonging the soil’s nutrient properties.
The reduced tillage
Another regenerative farming technique is shallow tillage, which seeks to avoid excessive mechanical and chemical stresses on the soil. Instead, preference is given to opting for shallow plowing, limiting passage over the fields with machinery or the grubbing up of plants.
Related to this is also the technique of no-till farming, which avoids soil intervention, activities that can intervene by destroying soil structure and increasing erosion. Crops are in fact sown directly into the residue of previous crops, thus keeping the soil covered and protected.
The advantages of such a technique are well evident. There is reduced soil erosion, immediate improvement in soil structure and organic matter, and, again, reduced carbon emissions associated with tillage.
Land cover
Another rather well-known method of regenerative agriculture is cover cropping, by which we try to encourage the use of practices such as green manure, a true plant fertilization that allows certain herbaceous species to be cultivated with the aim of promoting soil fertility.
The main benefits of cover cropping can be attributed to improving soil fertility through nitrogen fixation (as in the case of legumes), increasing biodiversity and microbial life in the soil, and again reducing soil compaction and improving water retention.
Composting
Composting is a process of controlled decomposition of organic materials such as crop residues and manure, aimed at creating compost, a nutrient-rich soil conditioner. The use of compost and other organic soil conditioners can improve soil structure by increasing water holding capacity and providing essential nutrients to plants.
The benefits of composting are numerous and include, among others, enrichment of the soil with organic matter, improvement of the soil’s ability to retain water, and, again, a contribution of a sustainable source of nutrients for plants.
Water management
Water management can also become a regenerative agriculture technique. In particular, sustainable irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting systems, can help conserve the water resource and improve water use efficiency.
In addition to the aforementioned use of drip irrigation systems to reduce water waste, additional water management practices include the construction of rainwater harvesting basins and cisterns and the implementation of mulching techniques to reduce water evaporation from the soil.
The use of new technologies
While the techniques summarized above have been well known in agriculture since less-than-modern times, it is also worth remembering that new technologies serving sustainable agriculture are enabling farmers to achieve important benefits in terms of production quality.
An example of excellence on the national and international scene is Plantvoice, an ecosystem of integrated tools that allow the operator to obtain direct information on plant physiology through noninvasive real-time sap analysis.
Plantvoice’s strategy is based on the sentinel plant concept: a sensor is in fact installed on a representative plant of a homogeneous plot, thus enabling reliable data to be collected on the entire cultivated area. In this way, constant and automated monitoring can be achieved, reducing the need for manual inspections and allowing targeted interventions when appropriate.
With the judicious use of Plantvoice, it is therefore possible to make faster, more informed and efficient decisions that optimize resource use and reduce losses that are due to disease and not diagnosed in time. Real-time monitoring and integration with artificial intelligence do the rest to ensure concrete added value in terms of sustainability and profitability of farming operations.
We remind all readers interested in learning more that you can get more information about Plantvoice by clicking here.
What are the benefits of regenerative agriculture
With the above auspices and characteristics, regenerative agriculture is capable of providing important benefits. Above all, the possibility of conserving or restoring soil fertility by significantly increasing the available organic carbon in the soil and its nitrogen components, with what follows-in positive terms-on plant well-being and productivity over time.
Again, regenerative agriculture can enable the strengthening of soil and plant root structures, succeeding in containing erosion risks and decreasing the likelihood of catastrophic environmental events, such as occur in landslides.
The benefits of regenerative agriculture, however, are far more extensive than those-well important-mentioned above. For example, conscientious use of the main classical and modern techniques of regenerative agriculture can increase local biodiversity through the recovery of forgotten or now considered marginal crops, and by fostering spontaneous growth of local species that, in turn, will be able to feed wild animal life.
Finally, regenerative agriculture can eliminate chemical contamination of soil, groundwater and air over time, thus bringing an end to the intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
The certifications of regenerative agriculture
Although there is no single certification of regenerative agriculture, many autonomous institutions have organized independent voluntary certification schemes, applicable in Italy or the rest of the world, incorporating in them the environmental elements and requirements of regenerative agriculture aimed at stimulating soil health and land management.
The standard is applicable to all operators in the first sector, and beyond: they are therefore geared toward individual producers and groups of agricultural producers, as well as processors and traders.
On the other hand, as for the basic principles on the basis of which quality assessments of production activities take place, and the subsequent granting of the certification standard, although they may vary depending on the policies of the certifying body, it is useful to recall how they are geared toward verifying the results achieved in terms of:
- soil nutrient balancing
- containment of interventions on the ground
- Ground cover (e.g., with decaying plant material)
- Increase the biodiversity of all organisms and microorganisms
- proper management of fauna
- Increase in organic matter.
But why would an operator choose to have a certification scheme?
The benefits of taking on regenerative agriculture certification are numerous, starting with the public disclosure of a transparency sticker, which assures stakeholders that the certification scheme’s evaluation principles have been met.
In addition, certifications of this type are often functional for offsetting through CO2 credits, and it can also be combined with other standards or certification schemes, providing good audit value.
Organic or regenerative agriculture?
When people talk about regenerative agriculture, they often also talk about organic agriculture, at the risk of confusing the two terms, which instead refer to two different approaches.
In fact, as we have seen, regenerative agriculture relies on a number of soil protection and ecosystem improvement techniques that places the main emphasis on restoring soil health through practices such as permanent soil cover, crop diversification and rotations, reduced plowing and soil intervention, and synergy with wildlife through integration of grazing animals.
Instead, organic farming is characterized primarily on the elimination of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and GMOs, following specific standards and certifications (such as organic labels) and aiming to reduce negative impacts on the environment by avoiding harmful chemicals. Organic farming techniques do not necessarily actively improve soil health or the ecosystem.
Technology in the service of regenerative agriculture
Having summarized the characteristics and challenges facing regenerative agriculture, one can well share how a decisive helping hand in perfecting regenerative agriculture practices is the use of increasingly advanced technology.
There is certainly no shortage of examples. Consider the possibility of integrating regenerative agriculture practices withenterprise resource planning ( ERP ) systems, a synergy that can lead to even more efficient and sustainable agricultural management. ERPs are in fact management software that help integrate and automate various business processes, improving data collection, resource planning and operations management.
As an example, ERPs can collect real-time data on different aspects of regenerative agriculture practices, such as soil quality, crop growth, water management or biodiversity, or even increase the quality of resource planning, tracking and economic and financial management activities.
Among the most useful tools for improving the productivity of regenerative agriculture techniques and, in general, of one’s own crops, we cannot then but recall once again PlantVoice, our ecosystem of integrated tools that allow the farm and the farmer to be given direct information on plant physiology through noninvasive real-time sap analysis.
As we have already recalled, PlantVoice is in fact based on the identification of a “sentinel plant” on which a sensor is installed, so that monitoring the plant can become representative of a plot considered homogeneous (about half a hectare), allowing the collection of timely, accurate data applicable to the entire cultivated area.
The PlantVoice system thus ensures constant, automated monitoring that does not impact plant health and, above all, can greatly reduce the number of manual inspections, leaving room for targeted interventions only when necessary. Other benefits that PlantVoice can give farmers include its Application Programming Interface (API), which allows integration with other agricultural management platforms such as the ERP systems mentioned above.This avoids the risk of information fragmentation and allows farmers to use collected data in synergy with other digital solutions to achieve even more advanced results.
Conscious use of PlantVoice therefore enables all farmers to make faster and more effective decisions, optimizing the use of resources and reducing losses that may be due to diseases not diagnosed in time or other biases that could jeopardize the sustainability of their farming operations.
