How Can Regenerative Agriculture Save Agribusiness?

After heat waves in Canada and Russia, floods in Europe and China, extreme weather has also reached Brazil. We had a 30% loss in coffee production due to intense frosts last year. This year, Paraná, a Brazilian state, estimates that there will be a loss of 8 million tons of soybeans due to the drought, equivalent to US$3.6 billion in resources. The country also faces floods in other states, like Bahia, Minas Gerais, and so on.

In this context, agribusiness professionals and companies that do not prioritize climate action or are unaware of the size of the problem, or are showing an inconsequential behavior with the future of our next generations. It is urgent to adopt agricultural practices to mitigate climate change, if we want to have a productive and sustainable agriculture ahead.

The numbers show this. Agriculture is responsible for nearly 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is also the cause of 80% of tropical deforestation. Global warming has been causing climate volatility, which affects crop productivity, rising the price of agricultural commodities. But it is possible to reverse this trend through #RegenerativeAgriculture, an agricultural method that creates more favorable climatic conditions for production.

Our world is changing. The European Union has just declared a climate emergency and stated that Europe must achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In the same year, the planet's population is expected to reach 10 billion people. This scenario will increase global food demand, and producing countries need to prepare to produce in a context of climatic extremes.

The way we grow food has a huge impact on our planet and drives the climate crisis. Land conversion and external inputs needed for industrial agriculture ecologically kill many agricultural areas. Mechanization and chemical fertilizers – commonly used on crops – cause GHG emissions. This intensive management to increase crop productivity releases carbon from the soil, instead of storing it.

Market is currently pressuring farmers around the world to intensify agriculture and focus on short-term investment returns. Due to the need to correct the soil, they increasingly rely on pesticides and chemical fertilizers to maintain productivity. As costs rise, yields decline, and farmers are stuck in debt, borrowing annually to pay for external inputs.

In the UK, 25% of farm households live below the poverty line. In the United States, half of the farms are in debt. Brazilian producers are also frustrated as conventional agriculture is no longer able to provide a sustainable livelihood.

But regenerative agriculture can change this trajectory. The method improves agricultural productivity by increasing the diversity of cover plants, which form a ground cover: a biomass that fertilizes the area, increases crop productivity and, at the same time, can be used for animal feed.

For these reasons, regenerative agriculture can help solve the climate crisis and save Agribusiness. It is a smart agriculture system that enables economically viable production that restores the soil, mitigates climate change, protects biodiversity and increases food security for a growing world population.

It is a nature-based practice, therefore, globally applicable and accessible. We already know how to implement it, the challenge is to put it into practice for Agribusiness worldwide.