Investment
Investment
GRDC Code: SCU2307-001RTX
Regenerative Agriculture: understanding the intent, practices, the benefits and disbenefits.
Despite becoming more common in agricultural conversations, there is no regulatory, widely accepted nor regularly used definition of Regenerative Agriculture (RA) in Australia. Available definitions of RA are based around adoption of specific farming practices, outcomes or principles. As implementation and adoption of practices on farm depends on many factors, a representative RA farming system can range within a diverse type of farming systems, going from the conventional low-input cropping farms to a complete biodynamic one.
Proponents of RA argue from an agroecological perspective which contends that system performance can be improved by greater consideration of natural ecological processes, regarded as largely lost in modern agricultural practices. In the Australian context, RA is largely driven by the beliefs of early adopters that the agricultural landscape will benefit by reducing the expense of external inputs (mineral fertiliser and chemicals). A main incentive for interest in RA is lower input costs alongside a means to increase soil carbon, lower GHG emissions, arrest biodiversity loss, improve water quality of freshwater ecosystems, address the wellbeing crisis in rural communities and reform food systems. These aspirational benefits are attracting the attention of growers and large corporations who are now openly supporting global regenerative practices in agriculture.
For some RA practices, the impact on productivity and profitability has been quantified. However, efforts to quantify combinations of practices and synergistic benefits are inconclusive and criticised for their bias or lack of scientific methodology. An investigative approach is required that resolves issues such as lack of standards or agreed indicators and methodologies used for the comparison of RA systems vs conventional ones, and selection bias in what constitutes an RA and conventional farm. The challenge in such an inquiry is how to bring greater clarity to these questions when beliefs, their theoretical base and some practices are contested between RA and the conventional science worlds.
GRDC proposed solution is a transdisciplinary approach engaging growers from across Australia and researchers from accredited scientific organisations that will ensure that objective, scientific rigor is applied to what is often perceived as an ideological issue.
Proponents of RA argue from an agroecological perspective which contends that system performance can be improved by greater consideration of natural ecological processes, regarded as largely lost in modern agricultural practices. In the Australian context, RA is largely driven by the beliefs of early adopters that the agricultural landscape will benefit by reducing the expense of external inputs (mineral fertiliser and chemicals). A main incentive for interest in RA is lower input costs alongside a means to increase soil carbon, lower GHG emissions, arrest biodiversity loss, improve water quality of freshwater ecosystems, address the wellbeing crisis in rural communities and reform food systems. These aspirational benefits are attracting the attention of growers and large corporations who are now openly supporting global regenerative practices in agriculture.
For some RA practices, the impact on productivity and profitability has been quantified. However, efforts to quantify combinations of practices and synergistic benefits are inconclusive and criticised for their bias or lack of scientific methodology. An investigative approach is required that resolves issues such as lack of standards or agreed indicators and methodologies used for the comparison of RA systems vs conventional ones, and selection bias in what constitutes an RA and conventional farm. The challenge in such an inquiry is how to bring greater clarity to these questions when beliefs, their theoretical base and some practices are contested between RA and the conventional science worlds.
GRDC proposed solution is a transdisciplinary approach engaging growers from across Australia and researchers from accredited scientific organisations that will ensure that objective, scientific rigor is applied to what is often perceived as an ideological issue.
- Project start date:
- 23/10/2023
- Project end date:
- 30/06/2027
- Crop type:
-
- All Crops
- Organisation
- Southern Cross University
- Region:
- North, South, West
- Project status
-
Active
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