This course explores the principles of regenerative agriculture; providing guidance on delivering positive outcomes from agricultural practices focused on soil health, water and air quality, carbon capture and biodiversity.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this course you will be able to:
- Understand the principles of regenerative agriculture
- Demonstrate the positive impacts of regenerative agriculture on soil health, water and air quality, carbon capture and biodiversity and upon the farming business
- Evaluate your current on farm practices and management and be able to consider changes to enable the implementation of the principles of regenerative agriculture to deliver further positive outcomes.
Designed for
Individuals looking to explore the principles of regenerative agriculture and receive guidance on delivering positive outcomes from agricultural practices focused on soil health, water and air quality, carbon capture and biodiversity.
Entry requirements
An intermediate course best suited to those who are able to demonstrate some practical experience.
Price
£228 +VAT
Duration
A one-day virtual course
Date
25/02/2025
Location
Online - link will be sent to you after booking confirmation
CPD Points
5 Basis; 5 NROSO
Content
Session 1 - Welcome and overview
Grasping the vision … understanding the scope and ambition of regenerative agriculture and how it can help you further deliver positive outcomes in terms of improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, climate resilience, improving water quality, capturing carbon, restoring and regenerating the land.
Practical implementation case studies showing the application of regenerative agriculture. Exploring potential challenges to crop production with sufficient yield and nutritional quality to meet existing and future needs, while keeping resource inputs as low as
possible.
Session 2 Applying regenerative agriculture principles
Moving towards the development of a regenerative agriculture strategy, taking into consideration how the region, climate and crops grown will influence the decision-making process. Outline of strategies available and how the approaches interact to deliver positive outcomes in terms of improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, improving water quality and climate resilience.
- Keeping living roots in the ground
- Applying conservation tillage practices
- Using long and diverse crop rotations and adopting cover cropping
- Composting, mulching, crop residues and soil amendments
- Protecting waterways from runoff and erosion
- Optimising use of nitrogen fertilisers - selecting the right product, rate and timing to protect waterways from nutrient leaching
- Optimising water use efficiency in accordance with water availability and crop demand
- Long-term carbon storage
- Planting trees, developing riparian and buffer zones, and establishing wildlife corridors to improve biodiversity and help long-term carbon storage
Session 3: Putting monitoring into practice
Establishing baselines and using key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the impacts of regenerative agriculture and to deliver further positive outcomes.
- Using soil assessments and healthy soil KPIs
- The watershed baseline and tracking changes in water quality
- Determining the GHG emissions of a farming system and developing a climate resilient, zero carbon farming system
- Using monitoring to create a biodiversity action plan (BAP) and establishing KPIs to assess continued improvement in biodiversity.
Trainers
Elizabeth Stockdale, Niab and Richard Harding, Groundswell Agronomy
Course code
FB09