REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Scope and Nature of Regenerative Agriculture
   • Environmental impacts of traditional agriculture
   • Pollution - land and water
   • Greenhouse gas emissions
   • Decreased biodiversity
   • Why regenerative agriculture matters
   • Sustainable agriculture versus regenerative agriculture
   • Principles of Regenerative Agriculture
   • Corporate initiatives
2. Functional and Integrative Level Systems
   • Functional regenerative agriculture
   • Improving soil health
   • Soil microbiome and soil health
   • Regenerative practices
   • Cover crops
   • Zero tilling
   • Rotating crops
   • Organic composts
   • Synthetic inputs
   • Carbon sequestration
   • Organic carbon
   • Integrative regenerative agriculture
   • Design and redesign
   • Permaculture ideas embedded in a system of regeneration
   • Energy flow
   • Imbalances
   • Wildlife habitat considerations
   • Increasing biodiversity
   • Increase biodiversity below ground
   • Increase biodiversity above ground
3. Integrative and Evolutionary Level Systems
   • Introduction
   • Systemic level
   • Case study
   • Humans in the ecosystem
   • Social impact
   • Antifragility concept
   • Adaptive and agile
   • Creating a microclimate
   • Capital inputs
   • Evolutionary level
   • Storying land
   • Supply chains/ Supply webs
   • Supply webs and big agriculture
   • Defining a bioregion
   • Defining an agroecosystem
   • Connect the land to its larger agroecosystem and bioregion
4. System Inputs: Climate, Topography, Nutrients
   • Climate
   • Pressure, temperature, rainfall
   • Soils and climate
   • Topography - soils and slopes
   • Broad ranging topography
   • Soils and parent material
   • Soils and nutrition
   • Nitrogen
   • Nitrogen cycle
   • Nitrogen fixation
   • Ammonification
   • Nitrification
   • Phosphorus
   • Potassium
   • Fertilisers - synthetic, organic
   • Organic materials
   • Plant material
   • Dead animals
   • Manure
   • Garbage
   • Hay, straw, paper, sawdust
   • Carbon
   • Biochar
   • Mineralisation
   • Chemoautotrophic organisms
5. Soils and Soil Regeneration
   • Introduction
   • Soil types
   • Soil classification
   • Soil horizons
   • Organic matter
   • Soil absorption
   • Soil desorption
   • Introduction to soil health
   • Presence of organic matter
   • Facilitate water resilience
   • Permeability
   • Balance & Diversity in the microbiome
   • Life forms
   • Monocultures and threat to soil and crop health
   • Approaches to regenerate soil and improve soil health
   • Cover crops
   • Limited disturbance - no or low tillage
   • Controlled traffic farming
   • Carbon retention
6. Livestock and Grazing Management
   • Introduction
   • Integrating livestock
   • Habitat restoration
   • Assisting carbon sequestration through grazing and increasing photosynthesis
   • Pest control
   • Reducing impacts - soil compaction, tillage, animal control
   • Effects of regenerative grazing on biodiversity
   • Challenges
   • Compaction
   • Aquaculture
   • Regenerative grazing management
   • Rotational grazing
   • Orchard grazing
   • Holistic planned management
   • Organic livestock management
   • Complimentary Grazing
7. Agroforestry and Silvopasture
   • Introduction to agroforestry
   • Incorporating trees and perennials
   • Benefits of agroforestry
   • Silvopasture
   • Silvoarable
   • Value of trees in agriculture
   • Carbon sinks
   • Carbon credits
   • Agroforestry and regenerative agriculture
   • Erosion control
   • Lowering water tables
   • Windbreaks
   • Timber, firewood
   • Fodder
   • Honey production
   • Wildlife habitats
   • Firebreaks
   • Increased rainfall
   • Challenges of agroforestry in regenerative agriculture
   • Financial considerations
8. System Outputs: Social, Economic and Global Trends
   • Sustainability and maintenance
   • Potential outcomes of regenerative agriculture
   • Physical outcomes
   • Increase crop health and resilience
   • Improve soil health
   • Create circular system
   • Carbon sequestration
   • Improve social and economic wellbeing of communities
   • Improve food nutritional quality and human health
   • Food access and security
   • Improving food safety
   • Increasing farm profitability
   • Socio economic communities influencing adoption of agroforestry
   • Carbon economics
9. Implementation and Whole Farm Planning
   • Implementing a regenerative agriculture system
   • Assessing natural components
   • Analysis and planning
   • Topsoil
   • Water
   • Determining business opportunities
   • Developing a business case
   • Cash flow
   • High cash flow crops
   • Long term crops
   • Cash flow concerns
   • Marketing direct to the customer
   • Organic vs non organic
   • Support and funding
   • Goal setting and planning
   • Introducing and monitoring change & Project Management
   • Benefits of Sustainable change
   • What factors impact on sustainability goals
   • Project managing regenerative agriculture
10. Special Project (PBL) Regenerative Agricultural Enterprise Proposal

WHERE DOES LAND REGENERATION BEGIN?

The first level of regenerative agriculture may be referred to as the “functional level”. This level encompasses practices that will perform a regenerative function in an agricultural setting. From a practical standpoint, this means a focus on soil health, particularly:

• Shifting or altering existing organic practices to improve soil carbon sequestration
• Increasing organic matter without significant changes to crop type or growth
• Reducing the focus on, or use of, industrialised chemical agriculture practices, with a view to returning to organic practices over time. 

The functional level of regenerative agriculture may be farm-focused, looking at a single landscape or producer, or perhaps larger cooperative of producers. Working in this context, approaches to regenerating soil begin with establishing best practices for the area and/or landscape. It is also important to consider the difference between improving soil health and regenerating soil.

Each individual farm however, is just part of a bigger landscape in a local district or wider region. Every individual property will always be influenced by the properties that surround it. To optimise farm regeneration, it may require changes being made beyond individual properties. To make change on one property alone though, can have a positive impact on surrounding properties as much as lack of change by neighbours might dampen the impact of change on one property.

Land Regeneration usually begins on one property.

Successful land generation can often spread and have impacts that grow and improve ever widening areas of land beyond that original property.