By John Kempf, Founder and Chief Vision Officer of Advancing Eco Agriculture
An increasingly popular narrative about regenerative agriculture within academic and agricultural financing circles goes something like this: “Farms should expect to see yield and profitability declines when they begin a regenerative transition. It takes three to five years before yields and profitability surpass their pre-transition levels.” Except… this story isn’t always true.
The expectation of decreased profit is a powerful demotivator that prevents most farmers from considering a transition. Growers cannot justify an investment that results in short-term negative performance in the hopes of a future reward. But we have seen first-hand many farmers make a successful transition without experiencing a decline in profit.
The approaches that result in negative yield J-curves during a transition period are based on idealistic views of soil and crop management, and are not inherent to regenerative farming. This idealistic point of view maintains that we must immediately reduce or eliminate the use of synthetic chemicals, and immediately incorporate cover crops, livestock, and no-till practices.
The belief is that if these practices are followed, and nearly all inputs are eliminated, in three to five years soil health will improve and yields, along with profit margins, will return to previous levels.
The problem with this perspective is its disconnect from the operational and practical realities on the farm. Some root crops, like carrots and potatoes, require the soil be tilled. Farms producing salad greens cannot incorporate livestock and animal byproducts for food safety reasons. For many other fruit, nut, and vegetable crops, livestock can only be present in the field for narrow windows of time far from the harvest window, which makes it impractical to include them in the farming operation overall.
An idealistic all-or-nothing approach is simply not practical for most farmers. Like anyone else, most farmers cannot afford to make zero income for three to five years. They can’t justify the investment of effort and money. So the idealistic approach is dramatically slowing down the transition to regenerative agriculture.
How can we speed up the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices at scale, thereby dramatically improving soil health and eliminating inputs that are detrimental to environmental and human health?
A better path forward is a data- and experience-based approach to crop management during a transition period:
- Reduce the use of fertilisers only when data from soil analysis reveals that less fertiliser is required.
- Reduce the use of pesticides only when plant data reveals that the crop has the nutritional balance to be resistant to pests.
With this approach, growers use hard data from readily available tests such as plant sap analysis, which is like a blood test for plants, to determine when their crops no longer have the need for inputs. When farmers make wise management decisions based on data, plant health improves, the need for inputs is reduced, and increased yields and profitability necessarily follow. This all happens immediately. It is completely reasonable to expect sustained or increased yields while reducing the use of chemicals and fertilisers. A yield reduction at any phase of growing reflects poor management.
Not only does this data-based transition reduce risk and restore peace of mind, importantly, it provides an economic motivation to begin a transition immediately, since profits can increase in year one of a transition. We have observed hundreds of growers successfully transition with this practical approach without experiencing yield or profitability declines.
Through a gradual shift toward regenerative agriculture, not only is soil health restored, but plants become more resistant to extreme weather events, pests, and disease. Growers are able to mitigate risk and have more peace of mind. When they are no longer tied into contemporary agriculture’s cycle of constant fertiliser, pesticides, and purchased seeds, they are no longer dependent upon commodity pricing for their profits. This is a farmer-centric, hopeful path forward that harmonises economic prosperity with ecological stewardship. In this way, regenerative agriculture’s full potential can be unlocked.
Tags: Regenerative farming
One Response
A friend referred me to you – we have spent the last 5 years trialing growing food with our whole plant food fertilizer that my husband created with tremendous success. The fertilizer feeds the soil and therefore the plants. We grow food that is nutritously dense – Brix readings in the above average and excellent range, but more importantly they are resistant to pests. The food tastes like it used to in 1960s or before. We restore the microbiome with a Consortia of SBOs. Anyway, I’m looking forward to your content.