Regenerative Agriculture Glossary

The terminology of regenerative agriculture includes several terms that may be new or unfamiliar to specialists and non-specialists alike. In this glossary, we have brought together the most important words and expressions and provided brief explanations. We hope this will make it easier for us to “speak the same language”.

Agroecology

The science of basing agriculture on ecological systems. It also addresses species diversity, nutrient recycling on the farm, and the maintenance of healthy, biologically active soil.

Adaptation

Changes in human attitudes and policy in response to environmental change, including our responses to increasingly variable weather. Examples include measures to make buildings more resistant to storms or to provide additional protection for areas at risk of flooding. Crop production practices and crop rotations must also adapt to changes in the local climate.

Aquaponics / hydroponics

Aquaponics combines crop production with the rearing of aquatic animals, such as fish or crustaceans, whose waste provides nutrients for the plants. Hydroponics is also a water-based system, but it focuses solely on growing plants, without animals.

Pollinator

A bee, butterfly or other insect, or a bird, bat or other animal that transfers pollen from the male anthers to the female stigma of flowering plants. Wind can also act as a pollinating agent. Plants fertilised through pollination produce fruit, vegetables and seeds.

Organic farming

A farming approach that uses organic fertilisers and natural agents rather than pesticides and synthetic fertilisers. It also avoids synthetic forms of antibiotics and hormones.

Biological community (biocoenosis)

A group of organisms of different species that live in the same area, interact with one another and depend on one another.

Sustainable agriculture

Farming practices that are economically viable and do not damage the environment over the long term. These include protecting natural water resources from pollution and synthetic substances, humane and ethical livestock husbandry, and preserving soil fertility for future generations.

Humus layer

The upper layer of soil, referred to here as the humus layer or topsoil. Plants and their roots grow in this layer, which contains most soil life. It also consists of organic matter, sand, clay and finer soil particles.

Integrated crop–livestock systems

Farms that both keep livestock outdoors and grow crops. These systems offer advantages for carbon sequestration and for maintaining healthy ecosystems and soil biology.

Depleted or degraded soil

Soil that no longer contains enough nutrients to support plant life, or whose fertile topsoil has been lost through erosion.

Climate-smart agriculture

Farming methods that respond to climate change by making production more resilient to weather, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, while also maintaining farmers’ incomes.

Compost

Organic material, such as leaves and crop residues, that has been collected and allowed to decompose, then used to fertilise the soil and revitalise its biological life.

Minimum tillage, non-inversion tillage and reduced-pass tillage

Completely eliminating ploughing and carrying out seedbed preparation, which normally disturbs the soil, as gently as possible to protect soil structure and soil life. This includes using compact disc harrows, medium-depth subsoilers and cultivators that do not incorporate crop residues into the soil.

Monoculture

Growing a single crop over a large area, potentially for several years in succession.

Mulch and mulch tillage

Mulch is material used to cover the soil, and it can take several forms. Mulch tillage that stimulates biological activity means leaving a covering of organic material, such as crop residues, on the soil surface. Air can still circulate freely through this layer, while it protects against erosion and shades the soil. As the material decomposes, it increases the supply of complex organic nutrients available to organisms living in the soil.

No-till or direct drilling

Almost completely eliminating soil disturbance: crop residues remain on the soil surface, and the cycle consists simply of sowing, harvesting, sowing and harvesting.

NPK fertiliser

This designation often appears on the packaging of synthetic fertilisers and processed organic fertilisers. N is the chemical symbol for nitrogen, P for phosphorus and K for potassium. The numbers following NPK indicate the percentage content of these three important nutrients in the product. Compared with organic fertilisers, synthetic fertilisers have disadvantages: they can scorch roots, rainfall can readily leach them into soil layers beyond the reach of plants, and high nutrient application rates can make both plants and soil life less active. For example, as little as 10 kg/ha of pure phosphorus as the active nutrient (= 20 kg/ha of MAP 12-52 fertiliser) is enough to prevent a plant from developing an adequate relationship with the soil ecosystem.

Permaculture

A farming approach that involves caring for natural ecological systems in and on the soil, and using practices that imitate or support them to provide the food people and animals need. It seeks to maintain natural nutrient cycles and a closed system, from the use of raw materials through to the reuse of waste, with as little human intervention as possible.

Precision agriculture

Methods for collecting and processing data about a site and information on the condition and composition of its soil and plants. Examples include soil testing, satellite image analysis and geographic information system software. The term also covers technologies that use these data, such as variable-rate application of nutrients and pesticides.

Intercropping

Growing two or more crops at the same time in close proximity, using combinations of species that do not suppress one another.

Rotational grazing

An outdoor grazing practice in which pasture is systematically divided into equal sections, with grazing animals allowed into only one section at a time. Related approaches, including strip grazing and paddock rotation, allow one part of the pasture to rest while animals graze another intensively and fertilise it with their manure. These methods improve the health of the pasture sward.

Crop residues

Plant material left on agricultural land after harvest, including stems, leaves and roots, or fragments of them.

Carbon sink

A forest, grassland, soil or other biological or geological system capable of storing carbon for an extended period.

Carbon footprint

A measure of human impact on the environment: the total greenhouse gases emitted by an individual, household or group.

Carbon sequestration

A process in which plants remove carbon dioxide from the air and incorporate the carbon into their leaves, stems and roots, and into the soil. This reduces atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Over time, however, the stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere as plants decompose and soils are disturbed.

Organic matter

Material derived from once-living organisms, as well as organic manure. Organic matter itself is not alive, but the complex nutrients it contains, such as chains of organic carbon molecules, provide a more readily processed food source for healthy plants, fungi, insects and other soil organisms than inorganic fertilisers do. Plants can therefore make use of the nutrients in organic manure more quickly, and those nutrients continue to feed them for longer than synthetic fertilisers do.

Feed and forage crops

Cereal crops used to feed animals, including varieties of maize, barley and wheat grown for this purpose. Some plants are grown primarily for animals to eat their green parts and stems rather than their seeds. Once dried, forage crops can also be used as hay or bedding in livestock husbandry.

Cover crop

A crop sown after the main crop has been harvested to prevent soil erosion. Other benefits include improved soil water retention, reduced need for synthetic fertilisers, improved soil structure and reduced compaction, and increased organic matter content.

Conservation tillage

A method of growing annual crops in which the previous year’s plant residues, most commonly crop residues in arable fields, are left in place and the next crop is sown among them. This practice helps keep the soil covered, reducing erosion and retaining water and nutrients in the soil. Farmers practising conservation tillage and regenerative agriculture leave at least one-third of the crop residues in the field.

Regenerative agriculture

The use of farming practices that prevent soil degradation and improve the soil, including restoring fertile topsoil and increasing biodiversity. Regenerative farms are more resilient to climate change. With fewer field operations and less costly nutrient management, their farmers can also earn a living more readily than those practising conventional agriculture, which involves ploughing, synthetic fertiliser application and often monoculture.

Compacted soil

Soil in which the air-filled spaces between particles have become so small or closed off that water can no longer infiltrate, fresh air cannot move downwards, and plant roots cannot penetrate. Traffic over the soil, repeated trampling and inappropriate tillage can all cause compaction.

Greenhouse gases (GHGs)

A group of gases in the atmosphere that retain heat near the Earth’s surface. As less heat escapes, the atmosphere’s average temperature rises over time. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.

Crop rotation

The sequence of crops grown on a particular area of land over successive years. Modern industrial agriculture has substantially reduced the diversity of crop rotations, sometimes limiting them to just one or two species. More sustainable farming practices include a wider range of crop species in the rotation, helping to prevent and reverse biodiversity loss.