Regenerative Agriculture for Sustainable Food System: An Overview

Food demand for the ever-increasing population creates a huge pressure on the land. At the same time, the availability of cultivation land decreases due to urbanization. It emphasizes the vertical intensification of crop production with more production per unit of land per unit of time by using intensive agricultural practices like high-yielding varieties of crops, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, etc. While these practices are sufficient to meet the nutritional requirements of the present generation, they deplete natural resources, which is crucial for future generations. This leads to land degradation, soil fertility decline, diminished water quality, etc. This conventional practice leads to climate change, which also affects crop production. So, to cope with these situations, appropriate approaches need to be taken to regenerate our natural resources so that they remain available for future use without compromising production levels as much as possible. It can be done by adopting eco-friendly technologies and practices like agroforestry, conservation agriculture, carbon farming, precision resource management, organic farming, crop diversification, reduced dependency on synthetic materials, mulching, adding amendments in the soil, judiciously managing water resources, eco-friendly management of crop residue, green manuring, grazing management, etc. in a holistic and integrated way.