Sustainable agroecosystems: Research to assess the benefits of regenerative grazing principles
https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/sustainable-agroecosystems/85317/
Carbon rich soil is healthy and beneficial for the entire ecosystem, based on previous and growing research. Ecosystem health is increased as soil carbon increases, resulting in improved water infiltration and retention; soil stability nutrient status, access and retention; diversity of fungi, microbes, plants, and insects; wildlife diversity, nutrition and habitat; livestock health and output; and farmer net profits, resilience and well-being. Healthy ecosystems with high levels of soil carbon and soil microbial biomass, diversity and function provide valuable ecosystem services (benefits humans gain from nature), which increase the sustainability of farming, enhance natural pest control, boost yields, and reduce costs, thereby increasing profitability.
However, many traditional agricultural practices damage the very ecosystems on which they rely to function optimally. Intensive farming methods, such as extensive soil ploughing, inorganic fertiliser and pesticide use, damage fragile ecosystems over time, reducing yields, and thus often prompting even more intensive farming. This ultimately leads to land that is damaged beyond repair and no longer suitable for grazing or cropping farming.
During the 2013 United Nations year of soil, global soil scientists warned that if the current intensive industrial agricultural practices were continued, there will be no functional soil left in around 60 years. In the best-case scenario, this means a change in the food we have available to us; in the worst-case scenario, this would mean insufficient food to go around. As dire as this warning is we can take confidence in the many farmers who are using management practices that have been shown to improve and regenerate soil health, decrease costs and improve profitability while regenerating degraded ecosystem function and delivering enhanced ecosystem services essential to our health and wellbeing.
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To achieve desired economic goals, regenerative grazing farmers manage specifically to optimise four key ecosystem functions:
1) maximise energy capture via photosynthesis to drive ecosystem function,
2) maximise capture of incoming precipitation, retention in the soil and cycling through plants,
3) maximise nutrient cycling through plants and soil to facilitate biotic function and productivity,
4) create and maintain high biodiversity below and above ground to increase ecosystem stability and productivity.
The biggest limiting factor in grazing and cropping agriculture is not the amount of rain that falls but the amount that stays in the soil. Soil microbes control 90% of soil and ecosystem function so management must enhance not degrade soil microbial biodiversity and function. Regenerative farmers must manage to mimic the evolved ecosystem functions of native grasslands and savannas. Soil microbial and associated plant communities in grazing ecosystems did not evolve under abandonment, but coevolved as complex, dynamic ecosystems comprising grasses and soil biota, grazers, and their predators.
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The principles for increasing microbial function to improve soil health and carbon in grazing ecosystems involves managing to achieve the following:
1) improve plant cover,
2) minimise bare ground,
3) manage for perennial plants rather than annuals,
4) manage for most productive plants,
5) leave adequate plant residue,
6) manage for living roots and green leaves for as many days each year as possible,
7) avoid tillage, inorganic fertilisers & biocides.