Exploring best practices for soil regeneration and carbon farming

To enhance the resilience of global agricultural supply chains, it is crucial to empower farmers with key agricultural knowledge, techniques and methods to improve soil health

At the root of some of the most urgent challenges facing agriculture today is the global threat to soil health. Challenges such as soil erosion, compaction, salinization and water retention are compounded by the impacts of the evolving climate crisis, threatening the resilience of global food systems.

Maximising soil health can lock in carbon to mitigate climate change and provide various benefits to growers and ecosystems - such as soil resilience, improving profitability, biodiversity, crop yield and nutrition.

As land stewards, farmers can regenerate soils through the adoption of carbon farming practices. But what are the correct practices to ensure maximum carbon sequestration, emissions reduction and regenerative outcomes? And how can we ensure the significant value-chain support needed to enable this?

To explore these issues, Bayer Crop Science and Innovation Forum convened a webinar, bringing together stakeholders in the agri-food industry to discuss current challenges threatening the resilience of global food systems; and share practical and impactful farmer-centric solutions to overcome these challenges.

To follow is a summary of the key points, challenges and solutions discussed. To watch the webinar recording, click here or to listen as a podcast, click here.

Discussion summary

Climate change, frequent unpredictable weather patterns and external market factors (high input costs) are significantly impacting growers in agricultural supply chains.
Degradation of production and yield is linked to conditions of soil erosion, and overall poor soil health.
Soil health is at the root of farmers’ challenges. Soil can help fight climate change through carbon sequestration, water retention and maintaining biodiversity.
Carbon farming refers to a set of agricultural techniques and methods used to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere (via photosynthesis), carbon sequestration and overall GHG emission reduction – to improve soil health, resilience of farms and famers’ incomes.
It is crucial to enable farmers as key players in the fight against climate change by equipping them with knowledge about practices to enhance soil health.

The panel discussion focused around three broad areas: farmer-focused approaches, data challenges and cover crops.

Farmer-focused approaches

Challenges

For farmers, changing current practices to adopt carbon farming and regenerative agriculture practices can be perceived as a huge risk.
A one-size fits all approach to implementing carbon farming and regenerative agriculture projects does not consider the diverse variety of contexts and landscapes of farmers.
There is a lack of common definition for soil health and regenerative agriculture known widely amongst farmers.
For farmers the potential impact and benefits of adopting carbon farming and regenerative practices are difficult to understand and it is hard to see improvements initially.

Solutions discussed

Bayer’s “feasibility study” is a crucial step that allows the company to understand the farmer’s context, local practices and reason for such practices before making recommendations of practice changes.
Bayer’s approach to sample farms (such as 77 farmers in Poland) allows them to learn and gather information about the potential impacts, challenges and benefits of practice change to then advise project management.
To share risk, farmer networks allow farmers to share challenges, experiences and solutions – allowing them to feel stronger together.
Personalised agronomic advice at the field level for farmers is essential for long term success. Advice needs to be tailored to their constraints.
There is an opportunity for enhanced knowledge sharing between farmers, technical experts and other supply chain actors.

Data challenges

Challenges

To have a common understanding of soil health, farmers are seeking to quantify and baseline data.
Soil testing and monitoring reveals data is variable between farmers.
There is not one tool or technology to measure model soil sample or monitor progress.

Solutions discussed

There is potential for technologies such as remote sensing to gather data to model sampling and ensure monitoring of progress made.

Cover crops

Challenges

Benefit of cover crops can be difficult to quantify economically.
Cover crops are only one part of the solution to carbon storage.

Solutions discussed

Cover crops have a lot of benefits; using cover crops increases organic matter in the soil thus increasing the soil water and nitrogen retention capacity.
Technical experts like RAGT, can provide tailored advice to provide appropriate varieties and species of cover crops or mixes of cover crops with companion crops.

Webinar panel

Lionnel Alexandre, Sustainability venture lead EMEA, Bayer Crop Science
Antoine Bedel, Forage and service plants expert, RAGT
Florence Braye-Rigel, EMEA carbon farming agronomic lead, Bayer Crop Science
Paul Luu, Executive secretary, The International “4 per 1,000” Initiative

The discussion was led by Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb