If the benefits of regenerative agriculture are so clear, why isn’t everyone doing it?It’s a fair question, say execs at Bayer Crop Science and Perdue Agribusiness, who will be speaking at a webinar hosted by Reuters Events on June 27 to share the lessons from their three-year partnership (click here to learn more).“Change is hard,” says Max Dougherty, Bayer’s VP carbon business development, who notes that the benefits of switching to regenerative agriculture practices such as no-till and cover cropping do not come overnight.In the first year particularly, he says, “there can be some bumps in the road but that comes back to the importance of our initiative: having people who can help you make that transition as thoughtfully and as effectively as possible.“Yes, there’s some upfront investment. Yes, there’s going to be some friction, but you can see the tangible benefits on farms even as farmers are beginning this journey, whether it’s the texture and the colors of the soils, whether it’s better water absorption and retention, or the growth in the depth of the root mass and the lack of compaction.”He adds: “We’re running a decade long field trial study; we think it’s one of the largest in the industry exploring regenerative practices. And what we’re seeing is that often within three years farmers see an improvement in productivity and profitability. And it can be even sooner than that.”There are two key areas of focus on the regenerative ag work Bayer is doing with Perdue Agribusiness, the ag products and services business of poultry giant Perdue Farms, he says. “One is how do you improve soil health and curate a growing environment that helps productivity, and two, how do you drive efficiencies around your input costs?On the latter, he said, “You could be pumping less water or getting more natural mineralization out of the soil from organic matter that’s being turned into available nitrogen to the crop, which could mean you can use less synthetic fertilizer. These things all lower a farmer’s cost structure.”Scope 3 emissionsPerdue has committed to aggressive environmental sustainability goals within its own operations (Scope 1 emissions), says Scott Raubenstine, VP agricultural services at Perdue Agribusiness

The diverse collection of sponsors of this event Photo by author taken at the SB'23 SAN DIEGO eventIn mid-October there was an annual event in San Diego, California run by the Sustainable Brands organization. The theme of this particular conference was “Regenerating Local” and there were many sessions in which the term “regenerative” was discussed with regard to various business sectors.On the final day of the meeting there was a stand-alone session called the SB REGEN AG Summit. “Regenerative” is a term and concept that has been rapidly gaining traction over the past 4 to 5 years although it has a much longer history in terms of its underlying principles, particularly when it comes to “Regenerative Agriculture.”In some ways “Regenerative” seems poised to replace “Sustainable” as the way to describe environmentally and socially desirable business models. In part this is because “sustainable” tends to have the connotation of maintaining the status quo while regenerative evokes restoration and positive change. The long term participants in organizations like Sustainable Brands or the agricultural multi-stakeholder sustainability organizations like Field-to-Market (FTM FTM ) or The Sustainability Consortium (TSC), or Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops have always described sustainability as a “journey, not a destination.” They have also done a great deal of work to define progress in terms of measurable “outcomes.” Thus, there is substantial philosophical and practical overlap between these two terms, but “Regenerative Farming” has more of a focus on soil health, its related crop production benefits and ecosystem services (soil carbon sequestration, climate resilience, water quality improvements, reduced input requirements…).The Concept Is At A Key JunctureAt this point consumers do not know much about what “Regenerative” means, and at the aforementioned conference and summit there were players articulating what are essentially two very different visions of what that term should mean and how to move forward. One model is being pursued through sourcing commitments by major food brands and is working out ways to aid and incentivize farmers to make the transition to regenerative farming

He also announced that the ministry will set up a Climate Smart Agrotextile Demonstration Centre to Revolutionize Agriculture through Digitised Microclimate Farming in partnership with SASMIRA.