Conservation and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions to Agricultural Production Under Uncertain Climate Change Conditions

Abstract

Farmers are tasked with increasing food production from the same or reduced area of land. This, along with the challenge of climate change, which results in frequent extreme climatic events such as droughts and late rains, poses major threats to sustainable agriculture and food security in the near future. The vital growth medium on farms is the soil that is a self-sustaining organism, teeming with life. Conventional agriculture is damaging to the soil due to carbon losses, soil erosion, and the alteration of soil microbial communities. Soil disturbance such as plowing can increase the loss of carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide (CO₂), by as much as 89%. In addition, the increased atmospheric CO₂ concentration has a knock-on effect on the soil microbial community. More and more farmers are adopting alternative methods of crop production such as conservation agriculture (CA) and regenerative agriculture (RA). The benefits of these more sustainable farming systems are numerous, including decreased soil erosion and soil CO₂ efflux as well as reductions in fertilizer, herbicide, and insecticide usage. An additional benefit is carbon sequestration, thus mitigating atmospheric carbon loading. This chapter highlights the effects of the loss of carbon in the soil and the large impact the soil has in contributing to CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions. It also highlights agricultural strategies to mitigate these effects with reference to two South African case studies, demonstrating that CA is relevant to both commercial and small-scale agriculture.