Sadhguru says that industries and businesses should focus on evolving fertilizers, pesticides, and farm machinery that are more soil friendly, saying: “Today there is enough technology – robotics, artificial intelligence - to transform these things. The science is already there; we know what to do. It is just that the industry has not caught up with it yet.”

its not really understood by financiers which means it is seen as a high-risk investment.

carbon credits.

including improved fertilizer management, improved water management/irrigation, reduced tillage or improved residue management, improved crop planting and harvesting (e.g., improved agroforestry and crop rotations) or improved grazing practices.

Verra’s methodology for Improved Agriculture Land Management (IALM) for example – which was recently updated – allows farmers to deliver important climate mitigation benefits while improving their incomes and on-farm resilience.

Whether you want to fix or reverse climate change, or do carbon sequestration, or limit the temperatures rising in the world, or resolve water scarcity, the connecting need is the need to fix the soil

Soil is a significant carbon sink - globally, approximately 75% of terrestrial carbon has been estimated to be stored in soil, which is up to is three times more than the amount stored in living plants and animals.

If you institute this in the policy of every nation, in 12–15 years’ time, we can significantly mitigate climate change just by attending to the soil.”

t reduces both the yields and quality of growing crops, eating into farmers’ profits as well as their ability to produce enough food for the growing population.

intensive farming, excessive use of chemical inputs, deforestation and other forms of land-use conversion contributing to the problem.

Research published in 2020 suggests that around 24 billion metric tons of fertile soils are being lost each year

support policy around soil health

providing essential services not just for agricultural production but also for plant growth, animal habitation, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and resilience to droughts or flooding.

Sadhguru, head of the Isha Foundation, is running a campaign, Conscious Planet – Save Soil, to change that.

rapidly accelerating

All companies have to stand up to the scrutiny of being attacked if there is real greenwashing. There is no place to hide,

Kuyek pointed out that Yara, another signatory to the report, is the world’s largest supplier of nitrogen-based fertilizers, “which are responsible for one out of every 40 tonnes of greenhouse gas emitted annually”.

“It involves change for all the players including the government, private, public companies and others. No one player can do this on their own, this has to be a collaboration of the willing. What needs to happen now is action and delivery,” said Reid.

Mars CEO, Grant Reid. “The interconnection between human health and planetary health is more evident than ever before.”

Food production is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases

cover 15% of croplands

come together immediately to change the world’s agricultural practices or risk “destroying the planet”, according to the sponsors of a report by some of the largest food and farming businesses released on Thursday.

Financial to use the science to build programs and explore productivity impact on farmers who use cover crops, crop rotations and reduced tillage.

market-based outcomes

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota.

(reduced tillage, cover crops, crop rotation or nitrogen optimization) and provide annual agronomic dat

a 0.25% interest rate rebate

By revealing numerous underutilized soil microorganisms, their processes, genes for different applications, increasing crop yield, nutrient cycling, and phytopathogen resistance has aided in the development of sustainable agriculture.

here is a growing need to harness the potential of soil microbes to counteract environmental disturbances. This encompasses direct manipulation of soil microbial populations, adjusting land management practices, or employing microbial inoculants as environmental probiotics. The soil microbiome emerges as a valuable tool in mitigating climate change's adverse effects. For instance, microbes can produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that seal soil pores, enhancing soil water retention—a novel approach to alleviate drought stress. Microbes also act as carbon sinks by consuming plant-exported carbon and storing it as cellular biomass or stable metabolites.

Methanotrophic bacteria, in particular, are key players in mitigating CH4 emissions by converting CH4 into CO2. This process is a crucial component of the global carbon cycle (Conrad, 2020).

A healthy microbial community is frequently a sign of a strong and fertile soil ecosystem. Soil microbes are important markers of soil health (Suman et al., 2022). Healthy soil can better support plant growth and productivity, which helps reduce atmospheric CO2 levels. Therefore, protecting and improving soil health for sustainable agriculture and ecosystem stability requires knowledge of and promotion of the diversity and activity of soil microorganisms.

By increasing the amount of carbon stored in the soil, soil microbes help mitigate climate change by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (Hu et al., 2018; Tiedje et al., 2022). Soil microbes, particularly fungi, are involved in forming stable carbon compounds, which help enhance plant growth and increase organic matter input to soil (Gougoulias et al., 2014; Lehmann & Kleber, 2015).

can help decrease greenhouse gas emissions, enhance carbon sequestration and soil health, and increase plant growth and productivity (Gougoulias et al., 2014).

To combat the negative effects of climate change on soil health, soil microbes can serve as a solution. The role of soil microbes in balancing the Earth’s carbon cycle is crucial as it helps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Additionally, these microbes play an important part in nutrient cycling, especially carbon, regulating methane, and maintaining soil health, all of which are essential in mitigating the impacts of climate change (Lehmann & Kleber, 2015).

soil microbes have the potential to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through processes like carbon fixation and storage in organic matter

carbon sequestration, and maintaining soil health.

Agriculture will continue to improve in its ability to provide sufficient nutritious food while meeting local and global environmental goals. These approaches come with inherent complexity that will need to be addressed through additional research, outreach to growers and consumers alike and supportive policy.

For a new paradigm to be successful, it will require flexibility and options to pick from in management practices that achieve the desired outcome, acknowledgement on a regional level of varying needs and practices, a clear list of certification requirements, a third-party verification system, and should be tied to a premium to reward the grower for the practices.

Environmental outcomes are important. It was clear from the present small survey that growers do not discriminate between production systems when adding in practices that have known benefits such as buffer strips, cover crops, and crop rotation. Given the serious concerns surrounding potential impact of climate change in the U.S. and impact on abiotic and biotic stressors like pest and disease pressure (Heisey & Day Rubenstein, Citation2015), it will be important both from a mitigation and adaptation perspective to continue to invest in research for new technologies and best practices.

However, the number one goal of a farm is to survive and be profitable – so how do you incorporate these things and still maintain profitability?

Growers generally found the term ‘regenerative agriculture’ to be ill-defined and defined differently across various stakeholders. One grower felt that it may provide more clarity and thus offer an improvement over the term ‘sustainability’. Personal definitions included: reducing degradation of soil; use of less inputs; less monoculture; improving soil fertility, biodiversity, and water cleanliness; and creating links between carbon in the soil and climate change. Growers emphasized that any system needs to recognize that grower profitability, economic survival, and durability of agriculture is essential.

market access and price were identified as significant challenges for certified organic growers

AMS strategy: prevention, avoidance, monitoring, and suppression

, many useful practices are in place for pest management on organic farms that have broad applicability,

As illustrated in the case studies, the process-based approach to allowing primarily non-synthetic chemicals creates substantial regulatory burden that limits adoption of organic farming.

fertilizer issues were a common theme amongst growers, citing cost, availability of manure, and substandard release characteristics relative to synthetic fertilizers.

Participants identified low yields, cost and availability of labor, larger investment of time and equipment, and management of isolation distances and reduced ability to expand acres

pollution from nitrogen run off and other practices such as tillage that did not demonstrate an appreciation for, or thorough understanding of, soil dynamics and soil health

Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient for many plants

One of the most fundamental shifts in food production occurred as the result of the discovery and scaling of a method to produce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, termed the Haber–Bosch process.