Prelims
Regenerative Agriculture
Context: Regenerative agriculture is gaining policy attention in India as declining soil health, water stress and climate variability threaten long-term agricultural productivity.
About Regenerative Agriculture:
What It Is?
- Regenerative agriculture is a holistic farming approach that places soil health and biodiversity at its core. Unlike conventional sustainability models that merely aim to maintain existing conditions, regenerative agriculture actively works to restore, rebuild, and improve the ecological health of the land over time.
Aim: To rebuild soil fertility, improve water retention, enhance biodiversity, and strengthen natural agro-ecosystems, making farming resilient against climate stresses while ensuring long-term productivity and secure farmer livelihoods.
How It Works?
- Deployment of On-Farm Biological Formulations: Replaces synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides with farm-derived bio-inputs—such as Beejamrut, Jeevamrut, GhanJeevamrut, Neemastra, and Dashparni—to restore beneficial soil microbial activity.
- Soil Armor via Mulching & Green Manuring: Utilizes cover cropping, green manuring, and organic residue mulching to shield topsoil from erosion, lock in soil moisture, build organic matter, and cycle nutrients.
- Multi-Tier Ecosystem Diversification: Integrates crops with livestock, agroforestry, horticulture, fisheries, and apiculture to build multi-source farm revenue and protect against single-crop failures.
- Precision Water Management: Incorporates micro-irrigation networks (drip and sprinkler systems) to apply water directly to root zones, maximizing water-use efficiency while preventing soil nutrient leaching and runoff.
Key Features:
- Minimizing Soil Disturbance: Restricts mechanical tillage to protect natural soil architecture and preserve the living root systems of perennial crops.
- Year-Round Soil Cover: Emphasizes continuous vegetative ground cover through cover crops and mulching to arrest erosion and improve soil moisture retention.
- Crop-Livestock Integration: Blends livestock rearing with agricultural cropping, utilizing animal dung and urine as foundational inputs for natural soil nourishment.
- Reduction of Chemical Dependency: Eliminates or limits synthetic chemical inputs, relying on natural pest management and botanical extracts to support beneficial insects and pollinators.
Significance:
- Enhances Climate Resilience: Better water retention and diversified farming help withstand droughts, heatwaves and excessive rainfall.
- Reduces Input Costs: Lower dependence on synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation can improve farm economics.
