Regenerative Agriculture: Trend or Necessity?
Since the Green Revolution, we have been growing the agricultural sector through various innovations in the field of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Its pioneers such as Norman Borlaug have saved millions of human lives worldwide. For decades later, our fertile soils have supported the development of large-scale agriculture and improved the quality of life in rural areas. Yet over the years, we have neglected the various elements that are crucial from the aspect of sustainability focusing primarily on short-term, profit-oriented productivity growth.
Today, not only we don’t have a global food shortage, but we produce more calories per person than are needed (around 22% more calories per person per day) and waste more than 40% of the global harvest every year. Issues like hunger and starvation are not related to yield but to ways in which the global economy and social structures are set up.
In Serbia, decades of intensive and unsustainable farming practices such as the burning of crop residues, and the devastation of windbreaks, combined with climate change and bad land management, have initiated certain soil degradation processes and increased the vulnerability of our rural communities. Now we came to the point where, for example, half of the agricultural land in Vojvodina, which was considered high-quality, now falls into the poor humus class, while the other half is in the medium humus class. The loss of approximately 0.9 tons of soil per hectare annually is being attributed to wind erosion alone, causing further long-term damage to our water systems and increasing financial expenditures (e.g., the ones related to the dredging of canals where the matter accumulates over the years). The loss of biodiversity caused by the spread of intensive agriculture further exacerbates soil degradation (e.g., lowered biological pest control, loss of pollinators, etc.) which leads to lower yields and increased reliance on expensive fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation systems which raises production costs for farmers.
Environmental and economic challenges are systemically intertwined and every reductionistic approach is going to produce a wide array of (unintended) consequences which we will need to pay for eventually. Today, we are witnessing many of these (unintended) consequences as our fertile land is facing serious threats.
IN THIS CRITICAL PERIOD, REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE EMERGES NOT AS ANOTHER MARKETING, HIPSTER OR GREENWASHING TREND, BUT AS A TRANSFORMATIVE SOLUTION AND A SET OF PRINCIPLES WITH THE POTENTIAL TO RESTORE AND IMPROVE OUR SOIL HEALTH, IMPROVE THE CROPS’ RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE EXTREMES, AND RETURN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS TO SUSTAINABLE FOUNDATIONS.
Regenerative agriculture provides solutions to problems to which conventional agriculture simply cannot respond as it focuses on maximising short-term yields and profits while causing ecological devastation. Technically this means this approach incorporates practices like cover cropping, intercropping, crop rotation, conservation tillage (No-till), and managed grazing, optimally supported by novel digital technologies through crop monitoring. Economically, it offers farmers a way to reduce input costs by decreasing dependency on expensive synthetic fertilizers and fuel. In the mid and long-term, healthier soils and ecosystems provide increased and stable yields, especially in the face of climate variability, creating numerous ecological and, therefore, social benefits in the process. Regenerative practices and techniques are also powerful tools for climate change mitigation as soil can sequester significant amounts of carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE OFFERS A PATHWAY TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE BY RESTORING SOIL HEALTH AND BIODIVERSITY WHILE BRINGING SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND ECONOMIC GAINS FOR FARMERS.
How far we have come in implementing this approach in Serbia and what challenges lie ahead? Today, we have a certain number of pioneers who have implemented above mentioned practices in smaller systems over the years and a certain number of farms which are in the incremental process of transition. We have cases of successful implementation on a larger scale as well (E.g., Geneza DOO). Most of them have started to investigate this topic and subsequently implement methods of regenerative agriculture as they were facing problems with their land. However, when we are speaking about a large-scale adoption, it demands a societal change and even a cultural shift. First, we need to break silos between all relevant stakeholders and initiate a goal-oriented discourse which is one of the core activities of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance of Serbia. It is mandatory to create such a social context in order to actively deal with numerous barriers to widespread adoption.
One of the most obvious ones often manifests itself in the form of a question: “How much would this cost?”. Currently, we draw the most credible answers from the direct knowledge and experience of our pioneering farmers and international literature.
The Institute for Development and Innovation will tackle, among other things, these questions through the new four-year horizon of Europe project ClimaPannonia which officially starts in March 2025. IRI will set baselines and calculate the costs and benefits of the implementation of agroecological measures in determined sites but also include calculating wider potentially reduced ecological and social losses. We need this type of systematic data and analyses to provide useful transition models for farmers and evidence-based policy recommendations for decision-makers to develop optimal forms of support.
Currently, farmers do not have any systemic support and financial incentives from the public sector to adopt regenerative practices. The term itself is not formally defined and recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy of the Republic of Serbia, although we had some recent rhetorical acknowledgement of the value of these practices. Furthermore, IPARD III Measure 4 is indeed tackling some agroecological practices which are compatible with regenerative approaches it is still under the accreditation process. We definitely need a bold and unambivalent approach from the public sector in cooperation with other stakeholders in developing policy measures and financial incentives to enable the large-scale transition. It has been very firmly proven that the instruments of a certain policy are more effective if their design takes into account the idiosyncrasies of the target group and the connection of economic, environmental and social outcomes.
Nonetheless, it is important to note that although the financial incentives and established models of transition are absolutely crucial for wider adoption they are not the only enabling factors and they probably would not be sufficient. We cannot neglect the behavioral and cultural factors such as ones which are based in identities that individuals have built and passed on to other generations over a long period of time. These identities often include heavy machinery and yield levels as core success indicators and status symbols. Individuals who deviate from established social norms and values are often ridiculed and stigmatized even by their close friends and family. In small communities, this can mean a certain level of social ostracism and whether or not a person will choose to deal with this is also dependent on an array of factors. This also means that fashionable “awareness-raising” campaigns are not only insufficient for large-scale behavioral change but can even be counterproductive as they are often interpreted as condescending and perceived as an attack on previously established identity validated through decades of social interactions. It is a quite proven fact that we don’t usually change our attitudes when simply faced with facts, no matter how easily proven and/or obvious they are.
Here, one of the crucial elements that must complement information-sharing is a bottom-up approach that draws from the experience and success pathways created by local practitioners. RegAgri Alliance is utilizing this approach by establishing a “farmers council” and a set of demo farms as part of the Alliance, unifying all interested practitioners and enabling purposeful interaction through the organization of demonstrations and open field days.
As a human species, we generally have a cognitive bias towards the present, which means we tend to calculate costs and benefits in the short term and ignore the long-term consequences of our decisions. This is why dealing with any issue related to sustainability is socially quite challenging and support measures must target the most obvious benefits first. At the same time, we must develop an enabling social context both in terms of public policies and in terms of social norms, values and beliefs, in order to enable and encourage the adoption and spread of regenerative practices and to enable a systemic transition towards sustainable models of land management.
Author: Siniša Borota
Picture: The Association of Balkan Eco-Innovation