BELEM, DO PARA, (IICA) –Regenerative agriculture has already proven itself to be beneficial, both from the production and environmental perspective, and, therefore, it is time to expand it.
The means of achieving this was addressed in a discussion at the pavilion of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) at COP30, the global conference that has brought more than 50,000 participants to Belem do Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon region.
Farmers, private sector representatives and members of international organisations participated in the debate, all agreeing on the need to improve financing,as well as all stakeholders’ trust in regenerative agriculture.
They also concluded that it is critical that implementation should not only focus on new technologies and on scientific theory, but also on the distinct expectations and needs of farmers, from varying communities and regions.
Brazilian farmer, Ana Carolina Zimmerman; Global Partnerships/ Multi-stakeholder Platform lead at Bayer, Gabriela Burian; executive secretary of FONTAGRO, Eugenia Saini; and Researcher at the National Agricultural Technology Institute of Argentina (INTA), Marcelo Beltrán, participated in the discussion, along with the Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero. Deputy director general of the hemispheric organisation, Lloyd Day, was the moderator.
Ana Carolina Zimmerman, a farmer from the Cerrado, the tropical savanna region of central Brazil and a biome, which has fueled the country’s extraordinary agricultural development in recent decades, pointed that as someone from a family dedicated to food production, she has witnessed the change.
Zimmerman explained: “Up to just thirty years ago, Brazil, was an importer of food; today it is a major exporter. We have achieved this thanks to the scientific efforts of EMBRAPA, which have allowed us to improve productivity and the environment at the same time”.
Zimmerman, whose farm is located in Goiás State, explained that she has been practicing no-till farming for many years, while using cover crops and also irrigation. This has enabled her to harvest her crops as much as four times per year and to increase her productivity.
“Today, the quality of organic material in our soils is better than before”, she notes, “because we use bioinputs and can be more precise in terms of where we apply them”.
One step further
Manuel Otero noted: “The main difference between sustainableagriculture and regenerativeagriculture is that the latter goes one step further. Sustainable agriculture focuses on maintaining what we already have, whereas regenerative agriculture adopts an offensive strategy: restoring soils, harvesting water or strengthening biodiversity. If we take that approach in the Americas, we will further strengthen our position as an exporter, not only of food, but of knowledge.”
The IICAdirector general spoke in detail about the Living Soils program, which IICA has been undertaking since 2020, under the leadership of scientistRattan Lal, from The Ohio StateUniversity, to help to restore this resource, which is essential for life. He noted that, “We have been able to attract the attention of political decision-makers and today many more countries recognise that without soils, there can be no agriculture and without agriculture there can be no food security.”
Gabriela Burian, of Bayer, celebrated the fact that for the first time agriculture was at the center of discussions at COP:
“We have been participating for many years, but have never been allowed such a prominent role as we have been given in Belém do Pará. The Brazilian presidency has issued a call to action to promote sustainableagriculture, and this represents a tremendous opportunity for the sector,” she stressed.
Nonetheless, Burian spoke about the need for greater investment and resources to expand best practices. “Today, 30 percent of the world’s population earns its livelihood from agriculture, but our financial base is merely 4 percent of GDP. We need more resources to expand regenerative agriculture,” she maintained.
Speaking on behalf of FONTAGRO—a sustainable funding mechanism for agricultural technology development in Latin Americaand the Caribbean—Eugenia Saini explained that the organisation model of the fund brings together science, funding and governance.
Saini spoke about the importance of bringing science to the farm. “We must work together to scale up these practices and contribute to designing policies that foster the effective transfer ofknowledge to farmers. A great deal of knowledge exists today, as well as the opportunity to use digital tools”, she noted.
On the other hand, Marcelo Beltrán, emphasised that regenerative agriculture is not merely an empty concept, but is yielding fruit in Argentina and other countries of the region.
Beltrán reported:
“We at INTA are in constant communication with farmers. We know, through our regenerative agriculture units, that farmers believe in this model, because they can see that the countryside is experiencing fewer environmental problems and at the same time, they are able to produce more.”
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