A new report by the British Ecological Society brings together the expertise of over 40 academics, practitioners and farmers across the UK to assess the evidence that regenerative agriculture approaches can achieve positive outcomes like improving soil health, increasing biodiversity and minimising environmental damage.
Dr Roy Neilson, soil ecologist at the James Hutton Institute and lead author on the report said: "There are five principles of regenerative agriculture but there's no one principle that delivers clear change on its own. To achieve meaningful change requires a good understanding of the context of the individual farming system. When possible, multiple principles ideally need to be adopted."
Of the core principles of regenerative farming - minimising soil disturbance, minimising bare soil, increasing farm diversity, integrating livestock, and favouring nature-based methods over synthetic inputs - the report finds the strongest evidence of benefits come from minimising bare soil.
Brown fields of bare soil are a common sight throughout the UK in the winter months but keeping roots in the ground year-round, through practices like cover crops, can increase soil organic matter, enhance soil structure, improve nutrient availability and increase biodiversity.
The report also finds good evidence that integrating livestock into arable land benefits weed, disease and pest suppression.
The evidence is weaker on the benefits of reducing soil disturbance with no-till or minimum-till under UK conditions, despite its prominence as a principle of regenerative agriculture.
The report finds that there is strong evidence that soil health and biodiversity can improve under regenerative agricultural practices in the UK but a whole systems approach is needed. Individual principals of regenerative agriculture used in isolation are rarely sufficient, though the authors do not wish to discourage farmers from taking up just a few new approaches.
Dr Lucie Büchi, researcher in crop and weed ecology at The Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich, and lead author on the report said, “Moving from one farming system to another is complex, difficult and risky. A whole systems approach is an ideal end goal, but this shouldn’t discourage farmers from picking up certain regenerative agriculture elements that they can implement on their farms. People need to start somewhere.”
Advancing technologies and experimentation will also be vital in this transition. Professor Nicola Randall at Harper Adams University, also a lead author of the report said, “Science and ecologists have a big part to play in regenerative agriculture along with farmers. There’s a perception that regenerative agriculture or nature friendly farming is going backwards, rediscovering past ways of farming. In actual fact, there’s a lot of exciting new technology and developments involved. The movement is very much forward looking.”
With 70% of land in Scotland dedicated to farming, it’s vital that as much as possible delivers for both food and nature. Regenerative agriculture, with its emphasis on soil restoration, addresses both and has been attracting increasing attention from farmers, governments and corporates.
The Scottish Government has a stated ambition for Scotland to be a world leader in regenerative agriculture and supports research programmes at The James Hutton Institute and the SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College).
To transition effectively to a more sustainable farming future the report recommends promoting knowledge sharing between farmers, ecologists and policy makers.
This is echoed in another report by the British Ecological Society and The Scottish Government looking at how farmers in Scotland can be supported in the transition to regenerative agriculture. James Robinson, a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and author of the report said, “The transition to regenerative agriculture is highly knowledge intensive. Knowledge exchange involving trusted sources – ideally other farmers sharing experiences – is key to a farm’s successful transition.”