Defining and validating regenerative farm systems using a composite of ranked agricultural practices

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Ecology
• Soil Science

Background:

• Defining regenerative agriculture is crucial for marketing, policy, and farming practices.
• Existing methods require a balance of precision, functionality, transparency, simplicity, scalability, transferability, incorruptibility, and replicability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate practice-based scoring systems for regenerative cropland and rangeland.
• To assess the correlation between these scores and key regenerative outcomes in diverse agricultural systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed scoring systems for regenerative cropland and rangeland.
• Validated scores against ecological and economic variables in cornfields, almond orchards, and rangelands.
• Measured soil carbon, organic matter, nutrients, water infiltration, microbial communities, plant and invertebrate structure, pests, yields, and profit.

Main Results:

• Regenerative scoring positively correlated with soil health indicators (organic matter, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, sulfur) and faster water infiltration in cropping systems.
• Increased regenerative practices boosted soil bacterial biomass, plant diversity, biomass, and invertebrate diversity across systems.
• Profitability increased significantly in more regenerative corn and almond operations, while yields were largely unaffected or negatively impacted in corn.

Conclusions:

• The developed scoring system accurately predicts ecosystem responses to regenerative agriculture practices.
• This approach offers a scalable and transparent method for distinguishing regenerative from conventional farming operations based on practice clusters.