Carbon: Regenerative agriculture
The Rural Report investigates two contrasting ways to cut agriculture’s carbon emissions. The first advocates a return to a more traditional way of farming. Hutchinsons’ Ed Brown is one of just two bioagriecologists in the UK. He explains why this method of farming can help bring down emissions and offers some carbon-cutting tips
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Regenerative agriculture isn’t always mentioned in a positive light, but I think the more negative views tend to come from those who haven’t yet understood it fully.
If I was to ask a client if they would like to farm in a way that produces high quality, nutrient dense food and feed, profitably, while enhancing the soil, the environment and reducing their reliance on expensive and increasingly ineffective inputs, I should imagine the response in most cases would be “when do we start?”.
In many ways this has just described regenerative agriculture. And the list of benefits goes on. For those farms and estates that fully embrace the concept, the possibilities are endless: community engagement, tourism opportunities, wildlife, industry research and scientific advances, carbon trading and so on.
And given the changes to government policy, removal of subsidies and increasingly volatile markets and weather, do we even have a choice? In terms of carbon, processes are already being established to allow trading or offsetting to take place. These are predominantly focussed on tree planting at present, but I am anticipating a market to develop for many more landowners to trade carbon, having set their business up to be carbon negative through their farming practices.
It is an exciting opportunity, but there are two caveats. First, we need to make sure we can accurately measure a farm’s carbon sequestration potential and have confidence in it if we are to set up a valuable trading system off the back of it. Second, turning your farming business carbon negative is harder than it sounds.
The following points are some suggestions to get you started.
1. Reduce tillage operations
And if we are being realistic about achieving our carbon goals, eliminate it all together. It can be an emotive subject but let’s be very clear, tillage burns fuel, releases soil carbon and is rarely of any direct benefit to soil health.
2. Reduce manufactured nitrogen fertiliser use
Nitrogen fertiliser has a huge carbon footprint so implementing ways to use it more efficiently and reduce how much you apply is very important. The air we breathe contains 78% nitrogen, yet we spend so much time and money manufacturing and applying vast quantities to our crops, which is, at best, 50% efficient.
3. Employ every available tactic to increase soil organic matter
Organic matter within the soil performs a large number of beneficial functions but perhaps more importantly in this context, for every 0.1% increase in soil organic matter per hectare, an additional 8.9 tonnes of CO2 is sequestered.
4. Introduce plant diversity, be it in an arable or livestock system
The soil, like us humans, prefers a varied diet to be healthy. A healthier soil supports a healthier plant which is better able to harvest the sun’s energy, and through the process of photosynthesis, convert that energy into carbon which it pumps into the soil. If possible, use C4 plants such as sorghum and millet as they have the ability to sequester much higher levels of carbon than C3 plants.
5. Integrate livestock into arable businesses
This could mean enterprise stacking on the same farming unit or of course working in partnership with neighbouring livestock businesses. There are opportunities for grazing cover crops and/or short to medium-term grass or herbal leys. With livestock comes manure which returns varying levels of nutrients and organic matter to the soil, reducing the need for manufactured fertiliser. It is, however, important to consider the contribution of said livestock to the carbon footprint of the whole business and some units have much less impact than others. The livestock sector, just like arable, has many questions to answer about the direction it takes in the future and if we are serious about our soil, carbon and environmental ambitions, many of the current practices will need a significant overhaul.
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6. Improve fuel use efficiencies
For example: perform regular maintenance on machinery and engines, use in field work rates which are most fuel efficient whilst maintaining productivity, use an appropriate tractor size for the job, minimize road travel and make use of technology such as guidance systems. Also consider if every field operation is entirely necessary and eliminate recreational tillage.
2. Carefully consider grazing management
A huge proportion of UK grassland is over grazed monoculture and sequesters little or no carbon, yet it is talked about most often, alongside tree planting, as the answer. Think mob grazed herbal leys, not continuous grazing of ryegrass. I believe there is huge scope to introduce grassland back into arable systems, facilitating the re-introduction of livestock, a key principal of regenerative agriculture.
3. Maintain living roots in the soil at all times
Soil should never be left bare for a multitude of reasons and the more time it has roots growing through it, the more the process described in point 5 is taking place, the more carbon we are sequestering.
4. Make use of catch and cover crops throughout the rotation
This ticks the boxes for plant diversity and living roots. While they are growing, cover crops are pumping liquid carbon into the soil through their roots and when they are terminated, their decaying tissue contributes more carbon to the soil in the form of organic matter.
5. Reduce pesticide use
The manufacture of pesticides for crop protection relies heavily on fossil fuels. The breakdown of these products in the soil via soil microbes also burns carbon. Alongside reducing nitrogen use, this is one of the first things that is achievable in a well-managed regenerative system.