New Zealand is better placed than other countries to embrace regenerative agriculture due to its existing pastoral systems, but lack of a clear definition is holding it back, new research has found.

As COVID-19 threatens farming communities across Africa already struggling with climate change, the continent is at a crossroads. Will its people and their governments continue trying to replicate industrial farming models promoted by developed countries? Or will they move boldly into the uncertain future, embracing ecological agriculture?

This dry summer is creating problems across the province with wildfires, but it’s also taking a toll on farmers. Larry Garrett of Garrett Ranches has been adding ruminates back to the ecosystem to build soil health.

A shift towards regenerative and more holistic grazing systems is enabling farmers to build greater resilience to fluctuations in weather patterns and market prices by working more closely with nature and reducing interventions.

A new regenerative agriculture technique developed by a local peasant farmer using native agave and mesquite is achieving success in Mexico and could be applied to global degraded lands. It is, says one expert “among the most soil regenerative schemes on Earth … deployed on degraded land, basically overgrazed and unsuitable for growing crops, with no irrigation or chemical inputs required whatsoever.”