Insight

Our view on regenerative agriculture

18.1.23 2 minute read

A new movement is gaining pace in farming. It’s even found its way into farm policy. Yet it remains opaque, nebulous and slightly hard to define. In this paper we look at Regenerative Agriculture, and where it might cross over with other schools of farming thought.

Farming is not without its fashions. Some trends come and go, only to return after a few years, when the radical alternative has proved not to be so radical after all, or the consequences demand a return to what is known to work.

Many readers will recall the arrival of minimum tillage techniques, when the greatest evangelists declared that the plough had had its day. Yet the cumulative thinking of thousands of generations of farmers has shown that burying trash and crop residues by turning soil over is still a very effective way to control weeds, minimise pests and disease, and propagate new plants. The plough survives.