Long-term farming: regenerative agriculture helps farmers think in terms of sustainability

Sustainability is not just about climate change. A practice must have the capacity to continue to be qualified as sustainable. Under this definition, practices that deplete resources or land cannot be considered sustainable. According to French farmer Frédéric Thomas: “Live as if you would die tomorrow, but farm as if you were a farmer for life.”

Many people believe that regenerative agriculture plays a key role in making our food system sustainable. Industry players, such as DanoneYou can also learn more about: PepsiCoRegenerative practices were adopted.

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Regenerative agricultural practices on the ground can help make agriculture more sustainable. They allow farmers to think about the long-term health of their land.

Soil health

According to Frédéric Thomas, soil health is important enough to make or break past civilizations. Soil health remains vital to the future of agriculture. Degraded soil can hinder crop growth.

Soil is every farmer's most important tool. The soil should not be treated subjectively or in the short term. Piotr Zerzycki, an agricultural researcher with EIT Food in Poland and the Terra Nostra Foundation, told an audience last month that this should be beneficial for future generations. To ensure sustainable agriculture, it is important to take care of the soil.

It is important to regularly test soils – for example by measuring their PH level – in order to monitor their health. Zarzycki said only 30 percent of soils are regularly tested in his native Poland. He suggested that the health of the land determines the success of a farmer.

He said today's farmers are "removing the earth from under their feet and destroying the foundations for future generations in a very short period of time...profit."

Toby Simpson, a British farmer, said farmers are beginning to understand the importance of taking care of the soil. This includes cover crops to protect the soil from the elements.

By testing the soil, you can correct some of the misconceptions farmers have. Lukasz Karamowski, president of the Polish Distillery Association and a farmer, once thought that high potassium levels in the soil were a positive thing. He only discovered it after a soil analysis.

He said that by analyzing soil absorption, he discovered that potassium actually blocked certain minerals in the soil. Other nutrients are made unavailable to plants due to excess potassium.

No plowing

Toby Simpson said: “At first we thought no-till was a simple system for establishing soil. But I quickly learned that it is a larger system that promotes soil health.

The term "no-till" refers to the practice of using a no-till device rather than tilling machines in order to plant seeds. The farmers on the panel saw many benefits to the no-till method.

Lukasz was initially reluctant to adopt the no-till method because it was not popular with his workers. It was a long-term solution that prevented rains from damaging his crops.

The ground absorbed the heavy rains beautifully. My neighbors still suffer from flooded land.

Piotr Zarzycki agrees. He said the no-till system was the first step toward regenerative agriculture for him.

He said bad weather was a factor in soil erosion. Farmers could not avoid this problem by plowing. Its systems now represent 100 percent no-till.

Frédéric Thomas warned that farmers should prepare for direct sowing. Thomas told his audience that he had met farmers who purchased the right equipment, but then discovered their soils were not prepared for no-till. He said, “Do a good diagnosis to know where you are in the process.”

Bacteria and strip cultures

When crops are planted in strips along contour lines, they can reduce erosion. Crop rotation is a system that alternates crops.

Before adopting strip farming, married Adam Jurczyk and Izabela Jurczyk struggled to get any yield on the land where they operated heavy machinery and pounded sand. The couple was ready to abandon him.

Izabela said many farmers thought they were going to go bankrupt when they started this practice. Farmers, especially older ones, were skeptical. The couple managed to make the plan work, surprising the skeptics.

They added bacteria shortly after. Farmers can reduce the amount of chemicals and fungicides they use by using bacteria.

Adam explained that it was a large farm and had managed to reduce the use of chemicals. Adam said: “I feel comfortable giving my daughter the grain we grow. »