In some ways, regenerative agriculture has become the new buzzword, not unlike “sustainable” or “green” of the recent past. If you ask ten farmers what regenerative agriculture looks like, or what it accomplishes, you will likely get ten different answers. Over the past three years, 12Tree has dedicated significant time and resources to answering these very questions. And though we feel we are just beginning on this journey, we have been delighted with the results. It is our pleasure to share with you here our thoughts and experiences on regenerative agriculture.
So, what is regenerative agriculture? It is a set of practices focused on the active management of above-ground and below-ground biodiversity which bring economic, social, and environmental benefits to our farming systems. It is knowledge intensive agriculture that does not allow for prescriptions that are universally applied across farms, but instead requires practitioners to utilize their toolkit of practices to develop a tailored solution for each farm. It emphasizes the maximization of long-term profits, not through maximization of yields – the conventional mindset – but through the optimization of yields, inputs, and resources. Importantly, regenerative agriculture is not financially concessionary but instead can and should be more profitable than our current convention- and therein lies its power for global impact.
We see regenerative agriculture as the natural next step in the progression and professionalization of agriculture. The “green revolution”, “precision agriculture”, and “conventional agriculture” have all done important things for the world. It is because of these advances that we have been able to significantly reduce costs and improve access to food, directly contributing to reduced global hunger. Regenerative agriculture does not destroy these paradigms. Rather, it takes the best from each of them and adds the perspective and awareness that will be necessary to feed our growing population without destroying our planet.
Many potential benefits of regenerative agriculture have been advocated by professionals and organizations. From 12Tree’s perspective -given our research and empirical experience across our farms- we believe that regenerative agriculture has the power to make farms (large and small) more resilient to input price shocks and increase the profitability of food production.
How do we go about it then?
First and foremost, it is important to acknowledge that there is no silver bullet, no single practice, no prescription that will achieve all of the benefits above. Instead, it is the intelligent combination of regenerative practices given a farm’s regional, climactic, cultural, and crop context that enables these benefits. It is the system that drives the change. All of our farms utilize some combination of the following regenerative practices to achieve these objectives:
1. AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS
Kalob Williams, Chief Operations Officer at 12Tree
These systems include a tree crop and more than one actively managed secondary or service species. In our farms, we have 17 distinct agroforestry systems that include 8 primary crop species, 6 forestry species, and various other support species. Compared to monocultures, this increased biodiversity promotes nutrient cycling and organic matter increases, reduces pest and disease pressure, and provides diversified cashflow. Additionally, these systems sequester significantly more carbon than their conventional counterparts.
2. KEEP THE SOIL COVERED
Uncovered soil is exposed to high temperatures, wind and water erosion, and compaction. By keeping our soils covered with cover crops or via non-chemical weed control we counteract these effects while also increasing nutrient cycling, improving soil water retention, and feeding belowground biodiversity.
3. NATURAL NITROGEN SOURCING
The largest part of most farm’s carbon footprint is related to the production, transport, and application of nitrogen fertilizers. By utilizing leguminous plants (beans) that are able to “fix” or capture and hold nitrogen in the soil, we reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizers, and therefore the carbon footprint of our products.
4. REDUCE DISTURBANCES
Many of the advances in agricultural technology involve physical and chemical disturbance of the soil that, when overused, destroy above- and below-ground biodiversity. We seek to reduce or eliminate chemical or physical disturbances in order to promote a thriving soil microbiome and ecosystem which in turn reduce pest and disease pressure, cycle nutrients, sequester carbon, and reduce reliance on external inputs.
5. PROMOTE DIVERSE LIFE
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Conventional agriculture has begun to look at a farm field as a laboratory. In extreme cases all life is eliminated except for the single crop that is planted. This creates an imbalance that leaves farms susceptible to pest and disease outbreaks and reduces the biodiversity of surrounding areas. Through activities such as on-site microbe propagation in our farm labs, compost tea production, predator population promotion, and insect population promotion, we seek to bring a balance of life to our farms that mitigates pest and disease pressure and creates symbiosis in the rhizosphere.
We feel we are just scratching the surface with the interventions we have made since the inception of our company but are happy to report that – next to a number of initial mistakes – we have seen several examples of success across our farms as we implement these practices. For example:
1. A 50% REDUCTION IN CHEMICAL
SPRAYS for the main banana disease “Sigatoka” and 75% reduction in sprays for mealybug at Platanera Rio Sixaola in Costa Rica. This is directly linked to the biodiversity existent in the production system that reduces pest and disease pressure.
2. ACHIEVING YIELD CURVES at Andean
Cacao in Colombia that are equal to or greater than the industry standard for cacao production, but doing so in a diverse agroforestry system with up to 6 actively managed species.
3. ELIMINATION OF PESTICIDE
FUNGICIDE, AND NEMATICIDE use on our plantains at Cuango in Panama. This is directly related to the biodiversity of the agroforestry system, the cover species, and the surrounding primary forest.
4. CONVERSION OF MORE THAN
4,000 HECTARES of cattle pastures into agroforestry systems which reverses the carbon footprint of the land. … and many more. Though we are happy with our success so far, we recognize that there is still so much for us to learn. We believe that the full potential of regenerative agriculture is yet to be fully understood and we are happy to be working together with many individuals and organizations to further develop the field.
Written by Kalob Williams, Chief Operations Officer at 12Tree
This article is an extract of the 2022 12Tree Sustainability Report.