It’s time to consider regenerative agriculture
AS early as 2009, the United Nations-Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said that the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050, which will make it necessary to increase global food production by around 70 percent.
The projected percentage to increase food production is net for the demand for biofuels, and takes into account a global population that is more urban and has a higher income to buy food. This means that FAO expects food demand to increase also due to higher consumption as income improves.
The FAO said in its paper titled “How to Feed the World in 2050” released in 2009 that, “In developing countries, 80 percent of the necessary production increases would come from increases in yields and cropping intensity and only 20 percent from expansion of arable land.”
It added that, “Many countries will continue depending on international trade to ensure their food security. It is estimated that by 2050, developing countries’ net imports of cereals will more than double from 135 million metric tons in 2008-2009 to 300 million in 2050.”
But at this point that the world population already reached 8 billion, I have to say that I am worried over how can we increase global food production in a sustainable manner, or without doing harm to the environment. And what if the world population will increase by more than 1.1 billion in 2050 from today’s 8 billion?
And looking at the bigger picture — or taking into account the worsening effects of climate change and disruptions in the global food supply chain — one of the most viable solutions to level up food production to feed the growing global population is regenerative agriculture.
Not limited to one farm plot
Regenerative agriculture, as the term implies, is about rejuvenating the resources needed for growing food — primarily but not limited to soil and water — to ultimately achieve sustainable production. It is not only about one farm plot but a whole ecosystem, hence it also takes into account watersheds, and rivers and lakes.
Regenerative agriculture shares many aspects with agricultural conservation because the latter is also about rejuvenating degraded land and water sources.
One very good example of a project that has an agricultural conservation component is the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) in the United States. Titled “Agricultural Conservation Practices: Clean Water and Climate Smart Investments,” the blueprint covers the 64,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay watershed that encompasses parts of six states in the United States.
The paper on the project identified the following farm conservation measures: Nutrient application management; tillage management; establishment of cover crops; pasture alternative watering; prescribed grazing; horse pasture management; establishing forest buffers; establish grass buffers; wetland restoration; soil and water conservation plans; agricultural drainage management; non-urban stream restoration; waste management systems; barnYARD RUNOFF CONTROL AND LOAfiNG LOT management; manure transport; and land retirement.
The list looks exhaustive but I can add more like: water impounding, rainwater harvesting and aquifer recharging, crop rotation, multi-cropping, balanced fertilization, among others. And these are not complex solutions needing a person with the intelligence of a rocket scientist at the lead to implement. Some of the measures are even thousands of years old, like crop rotation, or proven in semi-dry or semi-arid regions, like aquifer recharging.
According to the CBF, the agricultural conservation practices it outlined will result in “healthier and more productive soil, increased resilience to costly weather EXTREMES LIKE flOODS AND DROUGHT,” which are also objectives of regenerative agriculture.
Let me add that the goals for regenerative agriculture are better production, better nutrition, better environment and better life.
In the Philippines, I highly recommend kicking off a national regenerative agriculture initiative that will also involve local government units of which the ultimate aim is to rejuvenate water and soil resources; improve the resiliency of farming ecosystems to climate change; and HELP FARMERS AND fiSHERS EARN MORE. The latter is very, very important as FARMERS AND fiSHERS WILL HAVE MORE eOn the part of the Department of Agriculture, it launched under my watch the Balanced Fertilization Strategy (BFS) Program that can be the foundation of the national regenerative agriculture initiative. And recently, I have been getting reports FROM THE fiELD SHOWING HOW BFS can help farmers save on chemical fertilizer costs and get higher yields. Also, the materials to make organic fertilizer to supplement the chemical fertilizers are mostly found on THE fiELD, IN THE FORM OF PLANT AND animal wastes, among others.
And even if I sound like a broken record, the need to impound and harvest rainwater, and recharge aquifers is already a matter of urgency as the country is frequently visited by strong storms and rains during the wet season, and water for irrigation is getting scarcer during the dry season.
The use of certain biotech crops can also help reduce the use of insecticides that can harm the environment. One food example is biotech or Bt eggplant that was approved in the Philippines for commercial planting for food last October.
Bt eggplant will make it unnecessary for farmers to spray insecticides to contain the dreaded eggplant plant and shoot borer (EFSB). Based on studies conducted in the Philippines and Bangladesh, farmers spray up to 80 times per growing season to contain the dreaded EFSB.
Learning from the past
In my previous columns, I cited one of the pitfalls of the Green Revolution that started in the 1960S, SPECIfiCALLY MAKING FARMers dependent on agro-chemicals. Also, mono-cropping became the norm from the time the Green Revolution took root.
And I need not explain the impact of chemical overuse on farm lands, human health and the environment or ecosystem.
I also mentioned in my column on Nov. 10, 2022 (‘Servant leadership is what we need’) how I admired the “Father of the Indian Green Revolution,” Dr. MS Swaminathan, for his envisioning in 1990 the “Evergreen Revolution” or “his vision of productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm.” So, more than two decades ago, Dr. Swaminathan already saw the need for regenerative agriculture.
I was in New Delhi also on Nov. 10, 2022 to receive the “1st MS Swaminathan Global Leadership Award for Sustainable Development 2022” during the India International Agro Trade and Technology Fair-AgroWorld 2022 organized by the Indian Chamber for Food and Agriculture.
BEING THE fiRST AWARDEE NAMED after Dr. Swaminathan, I owe it to him to champion regenerative agriculture as one of the solutions to level up local and global food production.