Search

Sustainable soil management is essential to prevent agricultural soil degradation and maintain food production and core soil-based ecosystem services. Regenerative agriculture, one approach to sustainable soil management, is rapidly gaining traction in UK farming and policy. However, it is unclear what farmers themselves consider to be sustainable soil management practices, and how these relate to the principles of regenerative agriculture. Further, there is little insight into how sustainable soil management is currently promoted in agricultural knowledge and innovation services (AKIS). To address these knowledge gaps, we undertook the first national-scale survey of sustainable soil management practices in the UK, and complimented it with targeted interviews. We found high levels of awareness (>60%) and uptake (>30%) of most sustainable soil management practices among mixed and arable farmers. Importantly, 92% of respondents considered themselves to be practising sustainable soil management. However, our analysis shows that farmers combine practices in different ways. Not all these combinations correspond to the full set of regenerative agriculture principles of reduced soil disturbance, soil cover and crop diversity. To better understand the relationship between existing sustainable soil management practices in the UK and regenerative agriculture principles, we derive a ‘regenerative agriculture score’ by allocating individual practices among the principles of regenerative agriculture. Farmers who self-report that they are managing soil sustainably tend to score more highly across all five principles. We further find that sustainable soil management messaging is fragmented, and that few AKIS networks have sustainable soil management as their primary concern. Overall, our study finds that there are multiple understandings of sustainable soil management amongst UK farmers and land managers, and that they do not correspond to regenerative agriculture principles in a straight-forward way. This diversity and variety in sustainable soil management needs to be taken into account in future policy and research.

Various approaches were developed considering the need to increase agricultural productivity in cultivated areas without more deforestation, such as the Integrated Crop livestock systems (ICLS). The ICLS could be composed of annual crops followed by pastureland with the presence of cattle. Due to the high temporal dynamic of rotation between crops over the season, monitoring these areas is a big challenge. Also, agricultural organizations worldwide highlight the need for early-season maps for this kind of work. In this context, this study evaluated the potential of open data (Sentinel-2) data to map ICLS areas. The performance of two classifiers was evaluated: one of Machine Learning (random forest) and the other of Deep Learning (LSTM). Three different time windows of data were tested (Entire season, 180 days, and 120 days). Using the RF classifier, it was possible to achieve satisfactory results (Overall accuracy higher than 80%) for the early season (180 days). However, further studies are needed to explain better the lower(when compared to Random Forest) accuracy achieved by LSTM net (0.79 % for 180 days) and compare the results achieved here with results for a study area with different rates of cloud cover. Made available in DSpace on 2022-08-24T19:26:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AP-Evalution-early-season-2022.pdf: 12016659 bytes, checksum: 3fc8d4c05a9162610d9bccca3210e837 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2022 Edition of proceedings of the 2022 edition of the XXIVth ISPRS Congress, Nice, France.

The current focus on intensification and maximizing productivity in agriculture can endanger soil biota and the ecosystem services they provide in such a way that it acts counterproductive and increases the dependence on external inputs. In this study, we aimed to identify the factors that are most limiting for the restoration of soil biota and their ecosystem services on sandy soils. To this end, we assessed microarthropod communities, their relationship with the aboveground food web and their effect on organic matter decomposition, in two land-use types: grasslands with agricultural land use and grasslands with nature land use. The latter are grasslands converted from agricultural land use, for the development of the Dutch National Ecological Network. For these land-use types, we took into account two main factors of disturbance: the number of years since the last tillage (i.e., plowing event), and the current grassland management (mowing or grazing). We found that the diversity of microarthropods was higher in nature grasslands than in agricultural grasslands. The abundance of microarthropods increased with time since last tillage for grasslands that were mown, but not for grasslands that were grazed. An agricultural grassland without tillage since 39 years had a microarthropod abundance similar to reference natural grasslands reported in previous research. The number of predatory beetles increased with a higher microarthropod abundance in mown grasslands, but not so in grazed grasslands. The number of fungivorous and herbofungivorous grazer microarthropods positively influenced the decomposition of soil organic matter as measured with the Tea Bag Index. Furthermore, we found a negative effect of Difenyl and total fungicide concentrations in the soil on (herbo)fungivorous grazers. Contrary to our expectations, we found more pesticide residues in nature grasslands than in agricultural grasslands. In conclusion, to restore the soil microarthropods and the ecosystem services they contribute to, the best practice is to strive for permanent grassland (without tillage) with mowing or low-intensity grazing (without compaction of the topsoil).

Agriculture occupies 38% of the planet’s terrestrial surface, using 70% of freshwater resources. Its modern practice is dominated by an industrial–productivist discourse, which has contributed to the simplification and degradation of human and ecological systems. As such, agricultural transformation is essential for creating more sustainable food systems. This paper focuses on discursive change. A prominent discursive alternative to industrial–productivist agriculture is regenerative agriculture. Regenerative discourses are emergent, radically evolving and diverse. It is unclear whether they have the potential to generate the changes required to shift industrial–productivist agriculture. This paper presents a literature-based discourse analysis to illustrate key thematic characteristics of regenerative agricultural discourses. The analysis finds that such discourses: situate agricultural work within nested, complex living systems; position farms as relational, characterised by co-evolution between humans and other landscape biota; perceive the innate potential of living systems as place-sourced; maintain a transformative openness to alternative thinking and practice; believe that multiple regenerative cultures are necessary for deeply regenerative agriculture; and depart from industrialism to varying degrees. The paper concludes by reviewing three transformative opportunities for regenerative discourses—discourse coalitions, translocal organising and collective learning. Supplementary Information The online version supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10460-021-10276-0.

AIM To examine the interconnection between the rise of modern industrial agriculture, the Anthropocene epoch, and impacts on human health. To examine the impact of the emerging field of regenerative agriculture in addressing the mounting negative planetary and human health challenges. METHODS Structured interviews in social research for a PhD with over 80 regenerative farmers and industrial farmers in the field; and subsequent interviews with 40 other farmers. Literature search into the rise of modern human and animal diseases, the Anthropocene, and cognitive and paradigm change. RESULTS As Earth slips further into the human-caused Anthropocene epoch due to The Great Acceleration post-1950, there is a directly connected exponential rise in modern human diseases. Despite the emergence of Western agriculture and modern industrial society, our bodies are still adapted to the environment of our Palaeolithic past. Industrial agriculture and harmful agricultural practices are stripping essential nutrients from our foods while also lacing them with novel chemicals we are not adapted for. Consequently, the functioning of our gut microbiome has become destabilised. Evidence continues to mount that this is a key reason behind the exponential rise of many modern diseases. CONCLUSION To address what constitute evolutionary mismatch diseases due to cultural Dysevolution, a return to healthy regenerative agriculture, with foods rich in diverse nutrients and free of novel chemicals, provides a clear pathway to begin healing both the planetary systems and humans.

Despite the role of the horse having changed from working and sporting toward leisure, types of management have remained similar for the past century, with horses still being kept in small stables and paddocks which were predominantly designed for rest and recuperation after hard work. Many of the UK's major equine welfare challenges, such as stress and obesity, can now be traced towards management that does not fit well with horses' ethological needs. Some UK horse owners are now using creative strategies to manage their horses' welfare in a domestic setting, by structuring their turnout areas in ways that are designed around the horses' three key needs of ‘forage, friends and freedom’. Owners suggest that these management systems can be particularly useful for managing some of the most common equine health and wellbeing challenges, including equine metabolic syndrome, laminitis, stress or behavioural issues and arthritis. A better understanding of these systems could therefore be particularly useful to veterinary professionals who commonly need to assist owners in managing those conditions. This article describes the most frequently used alternative grazing systems, and the common advantages and pitfalls of each.

In India the demand of sustainable energy is growing at a fragmented level. The demand of rural electrification and economic growth requires high production of energy. Hence, the use of renewable energy may help to mitigate air pollution, and allow specific regenerative agriculture, waste, and forest biomass for producing the energy and achieving sustainable development goals. In the current work, we have selected a district of Maharashtra state of India as a case study and mapped the different land cover categories, and their estimated biomass. Based on this we have prepared the biomass thematic maps for the study area. These biomass maps have been prepared in the GIS environment and they displayed the biomass of crops, forests, and wastelands. The studied district has huge potential for agricultural biomass and can act as biofuel and biomass economies. These maps may play a crucial role in upgrading biomass sites focused on generating power from plants in the district Akola of Maharashtra, India.

Understanding what motivates farmers to adopt “climate-smart” regenerative practices is critical for developing the right policies, incentives, outreach, and support mechanisms. This article explores factors that motivated farmers in NSW Australia to transition from conventional to regenerative agriculture (RA), focusing on the role that their perceptions of agrochemicals and the microbiome played. Drawing on integral theory, the article takes a holistic approach to analyzing how farmer interiorities in personal and collective realms interacted with external behavior and the larger social-ecological system in which food and fiber is produced. A key finding is that negative experiences with agrochemicals associated with increasing costs and declining results were an important driver of change. Conversely, positive experiences learning about the microbiome and practicing ecological approaches to fertilization and pest control engendered enthusiasm and commitment to a transition away from high-input agriculture and a transformation in mindset. Further, conviviality associated with communities of practice, e.g. microscope groups, played an important role in the transition process, as farmers solidified new identities and participated in ongoing social learning. Based on these results, I argue that farmers’ feelings of kinship with nature (animals, plants, microbes) resulting from learning about and working with soil are underappreciated drivers of behavioral change and powerful leverage points for larger-scale social-ecological transformation. The integral model facilitates recognition of the connections between soil condition, farmers’ perceptions of and feelings about its condition, ensuing behavior including participation in new networks, and the creation of new norms, all of which create space for the emergence of institutional and systemic change.

Soil process models such as RothC typically assume soil organic carbon (SOC) is in equilibrium at the beginning of each simulation run. This is not likely to be true in the real world, since recalcitrant SOC pools (notably, humified material) take many decades to re-stabilize after a land use change. The equilibrium assumption stems from a spinup method in which the model is run under a single land use until all SOC pools stabilize. To overcome this, we demonstrate an alternative spinup procedure that accounts for historical land use changes. The “steady-state” and “historical” spinup methods both impute unknown C inputs such that the modeled SOC matches empirical measurements at the beginning of the simulation and set initial SOC fractions. Holding all other parameters equal, we evaluated how each spinup affects SOC projections in simulations of agricultural land use change in the U.S. state of Vermont. We found that projected SOC trajectories for all land use scenarios are sensitive to the spinup procedure. These differences are due to disparities in imputed below-ground plant-derived carbon between the two procedures. Compared to the steady-state, imputed C in the historical spinup is higher for land uses that increase SOC (e.g., adoption of regenerative practices) and lower for land uses that decrease SOC (e.g., a transition from pasture to crops), due to the time window within which land use changes are assumed to have occurred. The novel historical spinup procedure captures important dynamics commonly missing in previous studies, representing an advancement in soil process modeling.

First paragraph: I looked forward to reading the Routledge Hand­book of Sustainable and Regenerative Food Systems because I greatly respect the work of its editors and wanted to know how they would organize such a vast topic. It hardly needs repeating that today’s dominant industrialized food system is destroying biodiversity, degrading soil and water, emitting greenhouse gases, creating products that cause diet-related diseases, erasing traditional farm livelihoods, and destroying farm communities. Despite ample documentation of the problems and wide agreement on their existence, the solu­tions are much more contentious. What are the alternatives to the destructive industrialized food system, and what is the best trajectory from current practices to a better future? I hoped that this book would provide solid answers. . . .

Soil degradation is a global problem. A third of the planet’s land is already severely degraded, and soil is being degraded at a speed that threatens the health of the planet and the civilizations that depend on it (Whitmee et al. 2015). Depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC) resulting from extractive agriculture is a key driver of soil degradation (Lal et al. 2015). Much of this SOC has been released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas contributing to ongoing climate change, including extreme weather events. Soil degradation also diminishes water infiltration and retention, biodiversity, watershed functions, and the nutritional value of food. Reversing soil degradation is a top global priority (UNCCD 2017). Yields of major crops have increased substantially in the last century, primarily through intensive chemical fertilization. However, the greater aboveground plant biomass production resulting from chemical fertilization has usually not led to proportional gains in plant inputs to soil and soil organic matter (SOM) accrual (Khan et al. 2007; Man et al. 2021). Instead, these practices, in concert with other intensive agricultural practices such as intensive tillage, monoculture, application of pesticides, and bare fallows, have caused declines in SOM, increases in greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution of waterways (Loisel et al. 2019). However, adopting regenerative agricultural …

The importance and relevance of sustainable development for modern society and the environment are highlighted. The importance of the production of medicinal plants in today's conditions and the need for its development are revealed. The relationship between sustainable development and the production of medicinal plants is revealed. In particular, emphasis is placed on the relationship between the functions of the medicinal plant industry and the goals and objectives of sustainable development. It is noted that the production of medicinal plants has a direct impact on the implementation of environmental goals of sustainable development. Alternative methods of agricultural production are presented, among which regenerative agriculture is singled out. The role and significance of regenerative agriculture and its connection with the production of medicinal plants are revealed. The goals and principles of regenerative agriculture are highlighted. In particular, it is stated: the practical meaning of regenerative agriculture is that farmers use a system of crop rotation, diversify crops and animals, minimize tillage, do not contaminate soil and water with chemicals. It is emphasized that regenerative agriculture as an approach to management is really complex. It envisages not only the restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity, but also the improvement of economic performance of agricultural producers. It is revealed that the basic principles of regenerative agriculture correspond to the production of medicinal plants. In this regard, the principles of functioning of the industry of production medicinal plants are also presented. An analysis of «Sustainable Development Goals: Ukraine» was made. He confirmed that the need to develop the production of medicinal plants on the basis of regenerative agriculture is extremely important for Ukraine. A set of tools for sustainable development in general and agricultural production in particular has been formed. It is substantiated that the observance of the set of methodological principles of regenerative agriculture and the field of production of medicinal plants can lead to a positive synergetic effect.

This essay explores the representation of the concepts of rewilding, wilding and regenerative farming in contemporary nature writing, focusing on George Monbiot’s Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and...

Cover crops can be utilised to lower soil nitrate leaching. However, depending on the species grown and cover crop termination management this may lead to nitrogen (N) immobilisation and/or depletion of soil moisture available to the following cash crop, potentially impacting on crop yields. Cover crop management is also dependent on using herbicides to terminate growth prior to planting the next crop. We used an alternative method for cover crop termination by capitalising on plant senescence by frost in a multi-species cover crop established over-winter between wheat and maize. The cover crops accumulated greater quantities of N than the control. However, upon cover crop senescence due to cold temperatures, the partially terminated cover crop significantly increased topsoil available N from December to late February. This available N in the topsoil could be susceptible to leaching although this was not observed in our study. Cover crops did not have a significant prolonged effect on soil moisture over winter and late spring. The following maize yields were not significantly different between the control and cover crop treatment. Frost sensitive cover crop species could not be reliably terminated under a temperate climate, but provided a continuous supply of soil available N as the plants senesced. Depending on the soil moisture and weather conditions in the spring there could be a N leaching risk although this could be mitigated by establishing early spring crops.

Regenerative farming offers the promise of rapid carbon sequestration at global scale. Also called regenerative agriculture, it is largely absent in social science environmental discussions. Learning and teaching about regenerative farming has been left outside educational channels at many levels until now. Pastoral farmers themselves have been at the forefront of a renewal movement educating other land users how to farm beyond conventional Western modern systems. Regenerative farming challenges ‘industrial’ or ‘capitalist farming’ models that continue to degrade natural systems across the world’s pasturelands. This article describes ground-up learning processes and value propositions of farmers involved in regenerative farming. They see it as a solution to the normative shift in recent decades positioning farmers as ‘bad guys’: reducing biodiversity, degrading land systems by erosion and excess fertilisers, over-using water catchments and lowering water quality for urban communities. Understanding the claims and potential of regenerative farming enables environmental educators to be more specific in identifying potential strengths, without neglecting academic evaluation and critique to bear on this strategic climate innovation.

Regenerative agriculture is both an attitude and a suite of practices that restores and maintains soil health and fertility, supports biodiversity, protects watersheds, and improves ecological and economic resilience. It focuses on creating the conditions for life above and below ground and takes its cues from nature, which has a very long track record of successfully growing things. By re‐carbonizing soils via photosynthesis and biology, particularly on degraded land, regenerative agriculture can also sequester increasing quantities of atmospheric carbon (CO2) underground, making it a low‐cost “shovel‐ready” solution to climate change. Its multiple co‐benefits, including the production of healthy, nutritious food, means it will be a critical component of our response to rising climate instability.

Global socioeconomic systems exacerbate disparities that leave a disturbing proportion of the human population malnourished, making conventional food sources such as animal livestock unsustainable at global scales. Edible insects have the potential to solve both malnourishment and the unsustainability of conventional livestock agriculture. The sustainability and accessibility of farmed, edible insects, however, depends on their feed source. Future expansion of farming rests on developing locally available and affordable insect feeds. This article presents a literature review of studies which evaluate the performance of edible crickets (Orthoptera) in response to alternative feed sources such as weeds and the byproducts of agricultural and food industries. For each insect species evaluated, we analyze measurements of feed and insect performance, feed composition, effects of diet on cricket growth and survivorship, as well as other sources of performance differences. The aim of this review is to assess the current state of alternative feed research for farmed crickets and to provide guidelines for future studies on alternative feeds.

The global food systemmust address food insecurity and malnutrition in a way that aligns with the urgent need to decarbonize and mitigate the release of short-lived climate pollutants. Mitigation ofemission sources, supporting CO2 sinks, and increasing access to resilient crop yields, especially among disadvantaged communities, must be prioritized. San Diego County is uniquely positioned to multi-solve this dynamic problem at hand and serve as a model for building an equitable, climate resilient food system that actively mitigates and sequesters CO2 while alleviating food insecurity on a large scale.This paper assesses the food security and carbon sequestration potential of converting publicly owned open space to regenerative agricultural sites among San Diego County’s 15 municipalities routinely evaluated by the Climate Action Campaign’s Annual Report Card, including Carlsbad, the City of San Diego, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del Mar, Encinitas, Escondido, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, National City, Oceanside, San Marcos, Solana Beach, and Vista. To conduct this analysis, a modifiable, replicable, geospatial model was built in ArcGIS Pro to identify eligible open space with key criteria to prioritize equity and suitable environmental features. As identified by this model, if 5,652 acres of eligible open space were converted to productive regenerative agricultural sites across the aforementioned 15 municipalities, an estimated annual 182.75 million pounds of crops could directly provide 152.29 million meals, closing San Diego County’s meal gap by 94%, while sequestering approximately 4,060 MTCO2 each year. This paper offers scaled-down food security and carbon sequestration benefits by municipality and concludes with project implementation strategy recommendations.

The development of modern, industrial agriculture and its high input-high output carbon energy model is rendering agricultural landscapes less resilient. The expected continued increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, in conjunction with declining soil health and biodiversity losses, could make food more expensive to produce. The United Nations has called for global action by establishing 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), four of which are linked to food production and security: declining biodiversity (SDG 15), loss of ecosystem services and agroecosystem stability caused by increasing stress from food production intensification and climate change (SDG 13), declining soil health caused by agricultural practices (SDGs 2 and 6), and dependence on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to maintain high productivity (SDG 2). To achieve these SDGs, the agriculture sector must take a leading role in reversing the many negative environmental trends apparent in today's agricultural landscapes to ensure that they will adapt and be resilient to climate change in 2030 and beyond. This will demand fundamental changes in how we practice agriculture from an environmental standpoint. Here, we present a perspective focused on the implementation of an agrosystem approach, which we define to promote regenerative agriculture, an integrative approach that provides greater resilience to a changing climate, reverses biodiversity loss, and improves soil health; honors Indigenous ways of knowing and a holistic approach to living off and learning from the land; and supports the establishment of emerging circular economies and community well-being. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1199-1205. © 2021 SETAC.

Regenerative Agriculture proposes to contribute to climate change mitigation and increased food production through improved yields by building soil organic carbon (SOC). We examine three Regenerative practices: reducing tillage intensity, cover cropping and including a grass-based phase in arable rotations (ley-arable systems). Our Bayesian meta-analysis of 195 paired SOC and crop yield observations from published studies finds statistically significant increases in SOC concentration for reduced tillage intensity (0.06 g C.100g-1) and ley-arable systems (0.05 g C.100-1g per year of ley) compared to conventional practice over an average study duration of 15 years, but no effect of cover crops. None of these practices come at a cost to yield during cropping years. However, we find no evidence of a win-win between soil carbon sequestration and enhanced agricultural productivity. Further, the small magnitude of SOC increases suggests a limited role for these Regenerative practices in climate change mitigation strategies in temperate regions.

We hypothesize that Fashion brands’ demand for organic agroforestry cotton (OAC) may foster more sustainable supply chains in the cotton industry. However, to realize the potential of the OAC market, a better understanding of the market demand for OAC, as well as the quality and production standards under which the brands operate, the institutional frameworks, and the market mechanisms that underpin its commercialization, is needed. We evaluated the existing organic markets in Brazil using an interview-based methodology with key stakeholders throughout the organic cotton supply chain in 2022. Our study revealed that some brands are willing to pay prices ranging from USD$ 2.57 to USD$ 4.61 per kg of cotton lint depending on the brand. These brands require suppliers to meet quality specifications for the cotton fiber; for example, they require average to long fibers and specify harvesting practices that influence fiber quality. There are also social and environmental criteria that prioritize vulnerable communities of family farmers and women groups planting cotton based on established sustainable practices. The institutional framework includes different stakeholders throughout the organic cotton supply chain, which is fundamentally driven by private demand for cotton, counts on the support of agents connecting brands to farmers, and is indirectly supported by public policies. Existing markets for organic cotton are established via contracts that provide farmers with guarantees to invest in planting cotton and have different certification systems used by the brands that monitor and verify adherence to the standards. Market demand for OAC may, therefore, potentially lead to new markets that promote sustainable supply chains and farming practices. However, existing markets for organic cotton reveal complex requirements that must be addressed, such as the need for supporting agents connecting brands to farmers, and market mechanisms, such as complex contracts and certification.

The Colorado potato beetle (CPB) is an exceptionally challenging potato pest. Some regenerative farmers have reported that the use of transferred green manure mulch can considerably reduce CBP damage. Previous studies confirm this observation, but mainly with straw mulch, which is rarely used in Central Europe, and not embedded in the new regenerative cropping approach. For this, six trials conducted between 2014 and 2019 were evaluated, comparing CPB infestation in potatoes with and without transferred mulch as well as under a plough as a minimum till regime. In three out of six experiments, compost application was an additional factor. (I) Over all experiments, mulch significantly reduced initial infestation (−24%), egg masses (−27%) and larvae (−75%). Compost and reduced tillage added to these effects; (II) Mulch mainly resulted in delayed CPB infestation; (III) In a particularly warm season, when a second generation of CPB managed to emerge, regulatory effects of the mulch were not sufficient; (IV) Combination of transferred nutrient rich green manure mulch with reduced tillage, compost and other regenerative or agro-ecological techniques is recommended to achieve maximum regulation of CPB.

Regenerative agriculture has become a social movement in farming. It embraces the environmental basis of farming. Land, water and nutrients are viewed as an ecological whole. This includes bacteria and mycorrhiza as essential to soil health and plant diversity, and mob stocking and no-till farming above ground. Regen ag, as regenerative agriculture is often called, is a paradigm shift for farmers, who are often perceived as resistant. There is a mismatch between academic and policy interest focusing on the scientific need for and value of regenerative agriculture, and the social and human motivating benefits of regenerative agriculture. This crucial willingness, not simply the turn away from denialism, is the signal significance of this new form of farming. In New Zealand and globally, climate change and environmental degradation can be addressed much more quickly, more thoroughly and less contentiously if regenerative agriculture is supported and extended, even as science documentation is achieved over time.

Food embodies our most intimate relationship with nature. We ingest it to survive. Without it, perish. Through time humans have physically distanced the places of food cultivation from human inhabitation. In recent decades green planning initiatives embraced urban agriculture as a critical element of sustainable communities. However, current approaches to bring food cultivation into cities require labor, capital, and physical resources that are often unavailable in sufficient quantity, quality, or duration for provisioning sites to be considered sustainable. Within each pillar of sustainability - economy, ecology, and equity - barriers exist. Rooted in indigenous land stewardship and food provisioning practices, permaculture (permanent agriculture) offers strategies and tactics to overcome those barriers. Despite mounting evidence that permaculture will result in more sustainable food systems, adoption is limited. Social aesthetics is the term employed by cultural theorists to describe how institutions, social groups, and collective projects codify their values and beliefs. The diffusion of innovation theory suggests that ideas and information from a highly specialized world require translation into a language the rest of society understands to reach widespread adoption. This thesis translates permaculture to contribute to a sustainable social aesthetic for food provisioning and change American food culture. The translation occurs on iconic public land - 'America's front yard'. In 1901 the National Mall was envisaged to serve as a stage on which democratic values are expressed and became the prototype for America's City Beautiful movement. Today, its carpet of lawn framed by American Elm trees epitomizes the economic, ecological, and equity challenges of monoculture landscapes. This project aims to express democratic values through polyculture. It invites every citizen to participate in acts of justice rather than submit to illusions of order and control. From site selection through design, spatial and temporal scale is critical. This thesis explores food's past to understand our present and imagine our future. The design creates an immersive food experience that equips visitors with the knowledge and resources to apply permaculture at the homestead, neighborhood, city, and regional scales. The remade front yard becomes the symbol of a country where places of food cultivation and human inhabitation are one and the same. Master of Landscape Architecture Food embodies our most intimate relationship with nature. We ingest it to survive. Without it, perish. Through time humans have slowly increased the distance between where we grow our food (the country) and where we live (the city). In the process, we have built a system where millions of people either suffer from diet-related illnesses or experience hunger on a regular basis. We have damaged our soils and introduced chemicals that have contaminated our waters and polluted our air. We have built a system that both contributes to and is threatened by climate change. Our relationship with nature has become toxic. For decades there have been movements to change, transform, or replace the food system. In cities across the country, these movements appear as organic food in grocery stores, community gardens, urban farms, farmers' markets, farm-to-table restaurants, and more recently, food forests. The problem is each requires labor, capital, and physical resources that are often unavailable in sufficient quantity, quality, or duration for them to be sustainable, let alone scalable. What if there is another way to grow food - a way that heals the soil, decontaminates water, supports biodiversity, and provides enough for everyone? Rooted in indigenous land stewardship and food provisioning practices, permaculture (permanent agriculture) offers strategies and tactics to reverse the negative impacts of the existing food system. Despite mounting evidence that permaculture will result in more sustainable food systems, adoption is limited. For it to become mainstream, someone has to translate it into a language society understands. I try to do that through this thesis. My translation occurs on iconic public land - 'America's front yard'. In 1901 the National Mall was imagined to serve as a stage on which democratic values are expressed and became the prototype for America's City Beautiful movement. Today, its carpet of lawn framed by American Elm trees epitomizes the economic, ecological, and equity challenges of monoculture landscapes. This project aims to express democratic values through polyculture. This thesis explores food's past to understand our present and imagine our future. The design creates an immersive food experience that equips visitors with the knowledge and resources to apply permaculture at the homestead, neighborhood, city, and regional scales. The remade front yard becomes the symbol of a country where places of food cultivation and human inhabitation are one and the same.

This article’s main goal is to present regenerative agriculture as an alternative agrifood production approach, that provides elements to think about the resilience of socio- ecosystems, transcending the idea of sustainability, and that can also help with the discussion about Alternative Agrifood Movements (AAMs) from a new perspective. These are gathered under the banner of sustainability, and yet there is no agreement about the concept, much less about the forms of relationship between productive activities and nature's ecosystem processes. These movements also face the challenge of sustaining a profitable productive activity, and at the same time avoiding environment degradation. Regenerative agriculture has functioned as a production model since the 1950s, and yet its potential has gone largely unnoticed by academics dedicated to thinking about these movements.

Interest in land application of organic amendments—such as biosolids, composts, and manures—is growing due to their potential to increase soil carbon and help mitigate climate change, as well as to support soil health and regenerative agriculture. While organic amendments are predominantly applied to croplands, their application is increasingly proposed on relatively arid rangelands that do not typically receive fertilizers or other inputs, creating unique concerns for outcomes such as native plant diversity and water quality. To maximize environmental benefits and minimize potential harms, we must understand how soil, water, and plant communities respond to particular amendments and site conditions. We conducted a global meta‐analysis of 92 studies in which organic amendments had been added to arid, semiarid, or Mediterranean rangelands. We found that organic amendments, on average, provide some environmental benefits (increased soil carbon, soil water holding capacity, aboveground net primary productivity, and plant tissue nitrogen; decreased runoff quantity), as well as some environmental harms (increased concentrations of soil lead, runoff nitrate, and runoff phosphorus; increased soil CO2 emissions). Published data were inadequate to fully assess impacts to native plant communities. In our models, adding higher amounts of amendment benefitted four outcomes and harmed two outcomes, whereas adding amendments with higher nitrogen concentrations benefitted two outcomes and harmed four outcomes. This suggests that trade‐offs among outcomes are inevitable; however, applying low‐N amendments was consistent with both maximizing benefits and minimizing harms. Short study time frames (median 1–2 years), limited geographic scope, and, for some outcomes, few published studies limit longer‐term inferences from these models. Nevertheless, they provide a starting point to develop site‐specific amendment application strategies aimed toward realizing the potential of this practice to contribute to climate change mitigation while minimizing negative impacts on other environmental goals., On rangelands, application of organic amendments such as compost and biosolids is increasingly proposed for climate change mitigation. Considering a range of ecosystem outcomes, this meta‐analysis found that organic amendments, on average, provide some environmental benefits (increased soil carbon, soil water holding capacity, aboveground net primary productivity, and plant tissue nitrogen; decreased runoff quantity), as well as some environmental harms (increased concentrations of soil lead, runoff nitrate, and runoff phosphorus; increased soil CO2 emissions). Our models can be used to design site‐specific amendment application strategies, helping to realize the potential benefits of this practice while minimizing environmental harms.

Regenerative agriculture aims to stop soil degradation with some systematic steps of advantageous treatments i.e. no-till, using crop covers, etc. It is considered as one of the best candidates to capture anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere via natural carbon cycle of plants. However, its measure is not certain yet and it is a bone of contention now. But this method has some other useful consequences as well. We try to calculate their fiscal advantages.

Current production agriculture systems typically focus on yield outcomes at all costs. By shifting to best management practices based on regenerative farming principles, however, agricultural systems worldwide could maintain or even improve yields while sequestering atmospheric carbon (C) into soil organic matter (SOM). To demonstrate the effectiveness of regenerative principles at simultaneously benefiting agriculture and reducing greenhouse gasses, their C sequestration potential was examined through SOM data from 486 soil sampling locations from multiple farms throughout the coastal plains of South Carolina. These data were compared over varying multiple-year periods between 2013 and 2017 as their land management practices shifted from conventional methods to those based on the regenerative-based practice of cover cropping. The implementation of cover crops in crop rotations resulted in statistically significant mean SOM percentage increases of 0.11 (p ≤ 0.001), 0.11 (p ≤ 0.001), and 0.55 (p ≤ 0.001) for sampling sites converted into rotations utilizing cover crops for two, three, and four years, respectively. When averaged out per year for each sampling group, this results in an average of 622, 425, and 1584 lbs./acre/year of C fixed from the atmosphere and retained in the soil as organic matter. Increases were observed across all soil types sampled in the study with soil texture not significantly influencing a soils’ ability to increase soil OM or sequester atmospheric C through cover crop implementation. The calculations based on the coastal plains’ soils studied here demonstrate the promising potential of the application of regenerative farming principles to not only restore degraded biodiversity, recycle nutrients, improve farm profitability, and reduce chemical inputs, but also to sequester atmospheric C and simultaneously help reduce the effect of global climate change while creating healthy soils.

Regenerative agriculture (RegenAg) can help landholders attune their agricultural practices to the natural design of the earth’s cycles and support systems. The adoption of RegenAg, however, hinges not only on a good understanding of biophysical processes but perhaps more importantly on deep-seated values and beliefs which can become an obstacle for triggering widespread transitions towards synergistic relationships with the land. We designed and facilitated a Participatory Modelling exercise with RegenAg stakeholders in Australia—the aim was to provide a blueprint of how challenges and opportunities could be collaboratively explored in alignment with landholders’ personal views and perspectives. Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM) were used to unpack and formalise landholder perspectives into a semi-quantitative shared ‘mental model’ of the barriers and enablers for adoption of RegenAg practices and to subsequently identify actions that might close the gap between the two. Five dominant narratives which encode the key drivers and pain points in the system were identified and extracted from the FCM as a way to promote the internalisation of outcomes and lessons from the engagement. The Participatory Modelling exercise revealed some of the key drivers of RegenAg in Australia, highlighting the complex forces at work and the need for coordinated actions at the institutional, social, and individual levels, across long timescales (decades). Such actions are necessary for RegenAg to play a greater role in local and regional economies and to embed balancing relationships within systems currently reliant on conventional agriculture with few internal incentives to change. Our methods and findings are relevant not only for those seeking to promote the adoption of RegenAg in Australia but also for governments and agriculturalists seeking to take a behaviorally attuned stance to engage with landholders on issues of sustainable and resilient agriculture. More broadly, the participatory process reported here demonstrates the use of bespoke virtual elicitation methods that were designed to collaborate with stakeholders under COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

This open access book is a 2022 Nautilus Gold Medal winner in the category "World Cultures' Transformational Growth & Development". It states that the societal fault lines of our times are deeply intertwined and that they confront us with challenges affecting the security, fairness and sustainability of our societies. The author, Prof. Dr. Patrick Huntjens, argues that overcoming these existential challenges will require a fundamental shift from our current anthropocentric and economic growth-oriented approach to a more ecocentric and regenerative approach. He advocates for a Natural Social Contract that emphasizes long-term sustainability and the general welfare of both humankind and planet Earth. Achieving this crucial balance calls for an end to unlimited economic growth, overconsumption and over-individualisation for the benefit of ourselves, our planet, and future generations. To this end, sustainability, health, and justice in all social-ecological systems will require systemic innovation and prioritizing a collective effort. The Transformative Social-Ecological Innovation (TSEI) framework presented in this book serves that cause. It helps to diagnose and advance innovation and spur change across sectors, disciplines, and at different levels of governance. Altogether, TSEI identifies intervention points and formulates jointly developed and shared solutions to inform policymakers, administrators, concerned citizens, and professionals dedicated towards a more sustainable, healthy and just society. A wide readership of students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in social innovation, transition studies, development studies, social policy, social justice, climate change, environmental studies, political science and economics will find this cutting-edge book particularly useful.

Regenerative agriculture (RA) is gaining increasing recognition as a plausible solution to restore degraded agroecosystems. In Mediterranean drylands, RA has been limitedly adopted by farmers due to its initial state of development and lack of empirical evidence on its impacts. To support its large-scale adoption, we carried out a participatory monitoring and evaluation project in the high steppe plateau of Southeast Spain, involving local farmers applying RA in their almond farms. To assess the effect of RA, we studied 9 farms and selected in each farm one field with regenerative management and one nearby field with conventional management based on frequent tillage (CT). We clustered fields under regenerative management based on the different RA practices being applied and distinguished 4 types of RA treatments: 1) reduced tillage with green manure (GM), 2) reduced tillage with organic amendments (OA), 3) reduced tillage with green manure and organic amendments (GM&OA), and 4) no tillage with permanent natural covers and organic amendments (NT&OA). We used physical (bulk density and aggregate stability), chemical (pH, salinity, total N, P, K, available P, and exchangeable cations) and biological (SOC, POC, PON, microbial activity) soil propertoes and the nutritional status of almond trees (leaf N, P and K) to evaluate the impacts of RA compared to CT. We found that GM treatment improved physical soil properties, presenting regenerative fields higher soil aggregate stability. Our results showed that OA improved most soil chemical and biological soil properties, however physical properties remained similar. RA treatments combining ground covers and organic amendments (GM&OA and NT&OA) exhibited greater overall soil quality restoration than individual practices, improving physical, chemical and biological soil properties. NT&OA stood out for presenting the highest soil quality improvements. All RA treatments maintained similar crop nutritional status compared to CT. We conclude that RA has strong potential to restore the physical, chemical and biological quality of soils of woody agroecosystems in Mediterranean drylands without compromising their nutritional status, thereby enhancing their resilience to climate change and long term sustainability.

This chapter examines a small yet significant body of recently published English-language picturebooks that represent children’s contributions to regenerative agriculture as valuable—even integral—to the increasingly urgent work of developing new, sustainable agricultural practices. Viewed through a child-centered lens using the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, works such as On Grandpa’s Farm, Sleep Tight Farm, and Anywhere Farm portray children as valuable partners in agricultural activities, collaborating with adults to ensure food security on a small but impactful scale. Such representations have immense inspirational potential not only for swelling the ranks of the “Good Food Movement” with enthusiastic new participants of all ages, but also for planting seeds of hope in children’s minds. A crucial group of recently published picturebooks about farming extends the empowering promise that children can participate in saving the world right now through ethical food production—while simultaneously creating a healthier future for everyone.

Community agriculture initiatives are often run by organizations (1) relying on volunteer structures; (2) growing produce sustainably; and (3) aiming to improve health and access to food in their communities. To clarify “growing produce sustainably,” the Utah Conservation Corps Urban Community Farm (UCC UCF) (a volunteer and AmeriCorps-driven community agriculture model based in Logan, Utah) engages in regenerative agriculture practices, which are reviewed in this fact sheet. Community agriculture benefits and challenges are explored.

This chapter highlights various challenges and developments related to our current global food production and consumption systems, followed by a number of research and innovation activities that actively support a transition to a sustainable, healthy, and just agri-food system. The first section identifies several important trends that may either limit, support, or influence such a transition (Sect. 6.1). Following this, I will provide an overview of several research and innovation activities that our research group is currently involved in, such as the Dutch national research programme (NWA) ‘Transition to a Sustainable Food System’ (Sect. 6.2), nature-inclusive and regenerative agriculture (Sect. 6.3), closing the gaps between citizens, farmers, and nature (Sect. 6.4), measuring sustainability and health aspects of our food supply chains (Sect. 6.5), and the South Holland Food Family, an open innovation and food transition network (Sect. 6.6). This last section also provides an example of TSEI-framework application to analyze institutional change during initiation, development, and implementation of the South Holland Food Family innovation network (Sect. 6.6).

Agricultural expansion has been the main driver of land-use change in the Atlantic Forest. Nowadays, more than 60% of the biome is dedicated to mostly unsustainable agricultural land-uses; however, most people live in urban areas and overall production is low. Here, we discuss the impacts of agriculture in shaping the landscape and its potential to restore socioecological interactions. The focus is on agroforestry, which is broadly understood as the integration of trees in productive systems and landscapes. In the first part of the chapter, we review the concept of agroforestry, benefits, its relation to urgent global issues, its role in Forest Landscape Restoration and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In the second part of the chapter, we present examples in the Atlantic Forest and discuss the opportunities and challenges for upscaling the adoption of agroforestry and overcome the apparent dichotomy between production and conservation.

Farmers are responsible for one-third of greenhouse gas emissions and there is no plan to deal with this; their impact on land and water resources, floods, droughts, and the global extinction of species also cries out for attention. Half of the humus that makes the Black Earth what it is has been pumped into the air and, with it, the soil’s capacity to receive rainfall, supply water to crops, and recharge streams and groundwater is diminished. Since 1970, soil carbon across the steppes has been run down by 2.4–3.8/tC/ha/yr (5 times more where the soil has been eroded). Taking the least of these figures, mineralization of soil organic carbon (SOC) has emitted 195 Gt or 25 ppm of atmospheric CO2. Adoption of Conservation Agriculture that includes a diverse crop rotation with perennial legumes and grasses offers carbon capture of 0.5–1 Gt/yr, arrest of soil erosion, and bigger crops. At present, there is no market for the perennial grasses and legumes needed to put the organic matter back into the soil. The old-fashioned answer is to integrate crops and livestock – farmyard manure doubles the benefit of crop rotation, integrating crops and livestock will regenerate rural communities, and the extra production will make space to restore degraded land for wildlife, water resources, and amenity. But the people and skills needed for livestock enterprises are now hard to come by. Alternatively, the green biomass can be converted to biogas: a ready market for all the green biomass that can be grown would transform farming systems. This would be a strategic investment that can easily be funded through Green Bonds.

Fil: Mueller, Lothar. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research. Alemania. Fil: Eulenstein, Frank. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research. Alemania. Fil: Mirschel, Wilfried. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research. Alemania. Fil: Schindler, Uwe. Kuban State Agrarian University. Rusia. Fil: Sychev, Viktor G. Pryanishnikov-Institute for Agrochemistry. Rusia. Fil: Rukhovich, Olga V. Pryanishnikov-Institute for Agrochemistry. Rusia. Fil: Sheudzhen, Askhad K. Kuban State Agrarian University. Rusia. Fil: Romanenkov, Vladimir. Moscow Lomonosov State University. Rusia. Fil: Lukin, Sergey M. All Russian Research Institute for Organic Fertiliser and Peat. Rusia. Fil: McKenzie, Blair M. University of Dundee. Escocia. Fil: Jones, Michael. Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Noruega. Fil: Dannowski, Ralf. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research. Alemania. Fil: Blum, Winfried E. H. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. Austria. Fil: Salnjikov, Elmira. Soil Science Institute. Serbia. Fil: Saparov, Abdulla. Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry. Kazajistán. Fil: Pachikin, Konstantin. Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry. Kazajistán. Fil: Hennings, Volker. Büro Für Bodenfunktionsbewertung. Alemania. Fil: Scherber, Christoph. Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig. Alemania. Fil: Hoffmann, Jörg. Institute for Strategies and Technology Assessment, Sustainable Agriculture and Biodiversity. Alemania. Fil: Antrop, Marc. Ghent University. Bélgica. Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas A. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural. Río Negro, Argentina. Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas A. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural. Río Negro, Argentina. Fil: Gómez Carella, Dulce S. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural. Río Negro, Argentina. Fil: Gómez Carella, Dulce S. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural. Río Negro, Argentina. Fil: Augstburger, Horacio. University of Bern. Suiza. Fil: Schwilch, Gudrun. University of Bern. Suiza. Fil: Angelstam, Per. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Suecia. Fil: Manton, Michael. Vytautas Magnus University. Lituania. Fil: Dronin, Nikolai M. Moscow Lomonosov State University. Rusia.

[EN] The advanced state of land degradation affecting more than 3,200 million people worldwide have raised great international concern regarding the sustainability of socio-ecological systems, urging the large-scale adoption of contextualized sustainable land management. The agricultural industrial model is a major cause of land degradation due to the promotion of unsustainable management practices that deteriorate the quality of soils compromising their capacity to function and deliver ecosystem services. The consequences derived from land degradation are especially devastating in semi-arid regions prone to desertification, where rainfall scarcity and irregularity intensifies crop failure risks and resource degradation, compromising the long term sustainability of these regions., Regenerative agriculture (RA) has recently gained increasing recognition as a plausible solution to restore degraded agroecosystems worldwide. RA is a farming approach foreseen to reverse land degradation, increase biodiversity, boost production and enhance the delivery of multiple ecosystem services by following a series of soil quality restoration principles and practices. Despite its promising benefits, RA has been limitedly adopted in semiarid regions. Major reasons explaining this seemingly incongruous mismatch are the scarce and contrasting empirical data proving its effectiveness, top-down research approaches and lack of farmer involvement in agroecosystem restoration projects and decision-making, and the generally slow response of soils to management changes in semiarid regions, which may delay the appearance of visible results discouraging farmers from adopting RA., In the high steppe plateau of southeast Spain, an on-going process of large-scale landscape restoration through adoption of regenerative agriculture was initiated in 2015. The high steppe plateau is one of the European regions most affected by land degradation and desertification processes and represents one of the world´s largest areas for the production of rainfed organic almonds. In 2015, local farmers created the AlVelAl association with the support of the Commonland Foundation, business entrepreneurs, regional governments, and research institutions, and started to apply RA at their farms. The objective was to restore vast extensions of degraded land for increasing the productivity and biodiversity of their agroecosystems, increasing the resilience to climate change, generating job opportunities and enhancing social cohesion in the region, in a time frame of 20 years following Commonlands´ 4-Returns approach. However, the limited empirical information supporting RA effectiveness, the lack of reference examples in the region, and the slowness with which visible ecological restoration processes usually occur in semi-arid regions were considered major obstacles hindering RA adoption in the region. To effectively address this knowledge gap, support farmers and expedite RA adoption, this research proposed horizontal research fostering the creation of learning communities between farmers and researchers, putting together local and scientific knowledge to improve the understanding of RA. This thesis presents a participatory monitoring and evaluation research (PM&E) applying a combination of social and ecological methods to evaluate the potential of PM&E to enhance knowledge exchange between farmers and researchers on Regenerative Agriculture in the context of the high steppe plateau. The aim of this thesis is twofold: on one hand, to increase the understanding on RA impacts, on the other hand, to evaluate the potential contribution of PM&E to enable social learning and contribute to the adaptation and long term adoption of RA in the high steppe plateau and semiarid regions in general. To facilitate PM&E of the impacts of sustainable land management and agricultural innovations like RA, Chapter 2 presents a participatory methodological framework that guides the identification and selection of technical and local indicators of soil quality, generating a monitoring system of soil quality for PM&E by farmers and researchers. The methodological framework includes the development of a visual soil assessment tool integrating local indicators of soil quality for farmers´ monitoring. The framework consists of 7 phases: 1) Definition of research and monitoring objectives; 2) Identification, selection and prioritization of Technical Indicators of Soil Quality (TISQ); 3) Identification, selection and prioritization of Local Indicators of Soil Quality; 4) Development of a visual soil assessment tool integrating LISQ; 5) Testing and validation of the visual soil evaluation tool; 6) Monitoring and assessment of sustainable land management impacts by researchers and farmers using TISQ and the visual soil evaluation tool respectively and; 7) Exchange of monitoring results between all involved participants, and joint evaluation of impacts., To facilitate PM&E of RA in the steppe highlands, Phases 1 to 5 were applied through a series of participatory methods including a first meeting with AlVelAl board members for the definition of research objectives, farm visits, participatory workshops, and conducting formal and informal interviews, among others. Technical indicators of soil quality were identified, selected and prioritized by researchers through an extensive literature review and ad-hoc expert consultation with expertise in soil quality assessment and monitoring. Local indicators of soil quality were identified, selected, prioritized and validated by farmers in two participatory workshops. The co-developed visual soil assessment tool, named the farmer manual, was tested and validated during the second workshop. Local indicators selected by farmers focused mostly on supporting, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services including water regulation, erosion control, soil fertility and crop performance. Technical indicators selected by researchers focused mostly on soil properties including aggregate stability, soil nutrients, microbial biomass and activity, and leaf nutrients, covering crucial supporting services. The combination of local and technical indicators provided complementary information, improving the coverage and feasibility of RA impact assessment, compared to using technical or local indicators alone. The methodological framework developed in this chapter facilitated the identification and selection of local and technical indicators of soil quality to generate relevant monitoring systems and visual soil assessment tools adapted to local contexts, thus improving knowledge exchange and mutual learning between farmers and researchers to support the implementation of RA and optimize the provision of ecosystem services. Implementation of RA usually happens gradually due to socioeconomic, informational, practical, environmental and political constraints Thus, RA adoption by farmers, in practice, translates into different combinations of RA practices, with a diversity of management, based on farmer capabilities, environmental conditions, and expected restoration results., To help the design, adoption and implementation of most effective RA practices to optimize the restoration of agroecosystems, Chapter 3 presents the impacts of the different combinations of RA practices implemented by participating farmers on crucial soil quality and crop performance indicators using previously selected technical indicators of soil quality over a period of 2 years. This chapter corresponds to the application of phase 6 of the methodological framework developed in Chapter 2. RA impacts were assessed in 9 farms on one field with regenerative management and one nearby field with conventional management based on frequent tillage, that were selected together with farmers. Fields were clustered under regenerative management based on the RA practices applied and distinguished 4 types of RA treatments: 1) reduced tillage with green manure (GM), 2) reduced tillage with organic amendments (OA), 3) reduced tillage with green manure and organic amendments (GM&OA), and 4) no tillage with permanent natural covers and organic amendments (NT&OA). The impacts of RA compared to conventional management were evaluated by comparing physical (bulk density and aggregate stability), chemical (pH, salinity, total N, P, K, available P, and exchangeable cations) and biological (SOC, POC, PON, microbial activity) properties of soil quality, and the nutritional status of almond trees (leaf N, P and K). Our results show that GM improved soil physical properties, presenting higher soil aggregate stability. We found that OA improved most soil chemical and biological properties, showing higher contents of SOC, POC, PON, total N, K, P, available P, exchangeable cations and microbial respiration. RA treatments combining ground covers and organic amendments (GM&OA and NT&OA) exhibited greater overall soil quality restoration than individual practices. NT&OA stood out for presenting the highest soil quality improvements. All RA treatments maintained similar crop nutritional status compared to conventional management. We concluded that RA has strong potential to restore the physical, chemical and biological quality of soils of woody agroecosystems in Mediterranean drylands without compromising their nutritional status. Furthermore, farming management combinations of multiple regenerative practices are expected to be more effective than applying individual RA practices., In parallel to researchers´ assessment of RA impacts, farmers assessed RA impacts in their farms by using the farmer manual jointly developed in participatory workshops. Chapter 4 presents the RA impact results from farmers´ assessment, and documented farmers´ insights, in the third year of PM&E, on the visual soil assessment process using the farmer manual, and on PM&E outcomes regarding the facilitation of participation and learning processes. This chapter corresponds to the application of phase 6 and phase 7 of the methodological framework developed in Chapter 2. Farmers´ visual soil assessment indicated regenerative agriculture as a promising solution to restore degraded agroecosystems in semiarid Mediterranean drylands, although observed soil quality improvements were relatively small compared to conventional management, and more time and efforts are needed to attain desired restoration targets. The monitoring results on RA reported by farmers were complementary to researchers´ findings using technical indicators of soil quality. Farmers’ evaluation of the research project highlighted the PM&E research as an educational process that helped them look differently at their land and their restoration efforts and facilitated the creation of relationships of support and trust, learning and capacity building that are fundamental conducive conditions to enhance farming innovation efficiency and adoption. Farmers confirmed that generating spaces for farmer-to-farmer diffusion of knowledge and on-farm experiences is a key driver to expedite farming testing and adoption of innovations. Farmers insights revealed the need to actively involve them in all decision making phases of VSA tools and support them in initial implementation, in order to develop tools that meet farmers´ needs, to enhance VSA tool adoption, and facilitate reaching restoration goals. Furthermore, farmers´ evaluation of the farmer manual suggested the need to reinforce the multipurpose usefulness and potential benefits of collectively recording restoration progress in a systematized way, to enhance VSA tool adoption. Farmers´ insights on the PM&E research reinforces the importance of developing learning communities of farmers and researchers that provide a platform for exchange of experiences and support, as a crucial factor to favor social learning and support the adoption of long-term agricultural innovations. The success of PM&E research for agroecosystem restoration can be improved by integrating iterative phases where farmers can evaluate and adjust research activities and outcomes. We concluded that the process of PM&E that leads to enhanced social capital, social learning and improved understanding of restoration efforts has as much value as the actual restoration outcomes on the ground. Social learning is considered an important precondition for the adoption of contextualized sustainable land management and farming innovations like RA. The main objective of involving farmers and researchers in PM&E of RA was to enable social learning for enhanced understanding of RA impacts and support adoption of RA. Although there is a growing body of literature asserting the achievement of social learning through participatory processes, social learning has been loosely defined, sparsely assessed, and only partially covered when measured. Confirming that a participatory process has favored social learning implies demonstrating that there has been an acquisition of knowledge and change in perceptions at individual and collective level in the people involved in the participatory process, and that this change in perceptions has been generated through social relations., Chapter 5 presents an assessment of how the PM&E research process enabled social learning by effectively increasing knowledge exchange and understanding of RA impacts between participating farmers and researchers, and multiple stakeholders of farmers´ social networks. Occurrence of social learning was assessed by covering its social-cognitive (perceptions) and social-relational (social networks) dimensions. This chapter discusses the potential of PM&E to foster adoption and out-scaling of sustainable land management and farming innovations like RA by promoting the generation of information fluxes between farmers and researchers participating in PM&E and the agricultural community of which they form part. To assess changes in farmers´ perceptions and shared fluxes of information on RA before starting the PM&E and after three years of research, we applied fuzzy cognitive mapping and social network analysis as graphical semi-quantitative methods. Our results showed that PM&E enabled social learning amongst participating farmers who strengthened and enlarged their social networks on information sharing, and presented a more complex and broader common understanding of regenerative agriculture impacts and benefits. This supports the idea that PM&E thereby creates crucial preconditions for the adoption and out-scaling of RA. This study was one of the first studies in the field of natural resource management and innovation adoption proving that social learning occurred by providing evidence of both the social-cognitive and social-relational dimension. Our findings are relevant for the design of PM&E processes, agroecosystem Living Labs, and landscape restoration initiatives that aim to support farmers´ adoption and out-scaling of contextualized farming innovations and sustainable land management. We concluded that PM&E where the democratic involvement of participants is the bedrock of the whole research process and the needs and concerns of the farming community are taken as the basis for collaborative research represents a great opportunity to generate inclusive, engaging, efficient, and sound restoration processes and transitions towards sustainable and resilient agroecosystems., [ES] El avanzado estado de degradación de la tierra que afecta a más de 3.200 millones de personas en todo el mundo ha suscitado una gran preocupación internacional con respecto a la sostenibilidad de los sistemas socio-ecológicos, instando a la adopción a gran escala de manejos sostenibles de la tierra, adaptados a los diferentes contextos. El modelo agrícola industrial es uno de los principales causantes de la degradación de la tierra debido a la promoción de prácticas agrícolas insostenibles que deterioran la calidad de los suelos, comprometiendo su capacidad de funcionamiento y de prestación de servicios ecosistémicos. Las consecuencias derivadas de la degradación de la tierra son especialmente devastadoras en regiones semiáridas propensas a procesos de desertificación, donde la escasez y la irregularidad de las lluvias intensifican la degradación de los recursos naturales y el riesgo de malas cosechas, comprometiendo la sostenibilidad de estas regiones a largo plazo. Recientemente, la agricultura regenerativa (AR) ha ganado un reconocimiento cada vez mayor como solución plausible para restaurar agroecosistemas degradados de todo el mundo. La AR es un enfoque agrícola que se prevé puede revertir la degradación de la tierra, aumentar la biodiversidad, incrementar la producción y mejorar la prestación de múltiples servicios ecosistémicos mediante el seguimiento de una serie de principios y prácticas de restauración de calidad del suelo. A pesar de los prometedores beneficios de la AR, este enfoque agrícola ha sido adoptado de forma muy limitada en regiones semiáridas. Las principales razones que explican su limitada adopción son: la escasez de datos empíricos que demuestran su efectividad, la información contradictoria que ofrecen dichos datos, los enfoques verticales (top-down), la falta de inclusión, participación y toma de decisiones de las agricultoras/es en los proyectos de restauración de agroecosistemas, y la generalmente lenta respuesta de los suelos en regiones semiáridas a los cambios de manejo, lo que puede retrasar la aparición de resultados visibles y desalentar a agricultoras y agricultores a adoptar la AR. En el altiplano estepario del sureste español se inició en 2015 un proceso de restauración de ecosistemas a gran escala mediante la adopción de la AR. El altiplano estepario es una de las regiones europeas más afectadas por procesos de degradación y desertificación de la tierra, y representa una de las mayores extensiones del mundo de producción de almendras ecológicas en secano. En 2015, agricultoras y agricultores locales crearon la asociación agroecológica AlVelAl con el apoyo de la Fundación Commonland, empresas, gobiernos regionales e instituciones de investigación, y comenzaron a aplicar AR en sus fincas. Su objetivo es restaurar grandes extensiones de tierras degradadas, mejorar la productividad y la biodiversidad, aumentar la resiliencia de sus agroecosistemas al cambio climático, generar oportunidades de empleo y mejorar la cohesión social en la región en el plazo de 20 años, siguiendo el enfoque de 4 retornos de la Fundación Commonland. Sin embargo, la escasez de datos e información que respalden la efectividad de la AR, junto con la falta de ejemplos de referencia en la región y la lentitud con la que los procesos de restauración ecológica suelen ocurrir en regiones semiáridas, fueron considerados grandes obstáculos para promover la adopción de la AR en la región., Para abordar de manera efectiva la falta de conocimiento sobre los impactos de la AR y apoyar a la comunidad agrícola a mejorar y acelerar su adopción, son necesarios enfoques de investigación horizontales que fomenten la creación de comunidades de aprendizaje entre agricultoras/es e investigadoras/es, aunando el conocimiento local y científico para mejorar el conocimiento sobre la AR. Esta tesis presenta una investigación de monitorización y evaluación participativa (MEP) donde aplicamos una combinación de métodos sociales y ecológicos para evaluar el potencial de esta metodología de investigación en la mejora del intercambio de conocimientos entre agricultoras/es e investigadoras/es sobre la AR en el contexto del altiplano estepario. El objetivo de esta tesis es doble: por un lado, mejorar el conocimiento de los impactos de la AR y, por otro lado, evaluar la contribución de la MEP en facilitar procesos de aprendizaje social, contribuyendo a una mejor adaptación y adopción a largo plazo de la AR en el altiplano estepario en particular, y en regiones semiáridas en general. Combinar el conocimiento científico y local se vuelve un imperativo en procesos de MEP para mejorar la adopción de innovaciones agrícolas, siendo especialmente relevante en regiones semiáridas que típicamente responden lento a cambios de manejo, lo que suele dar lugar a bajas tasas de adopción de dichas innovaciones. Para ello es necesario generar sistemas de monitorización de calidad del suelo y sostenibilidad de los agroecosistemas que integren el conocimiento de agricultoras/es e investigadoras/es, y estén adaptados al contexto donde se aplican las innovaciones., Para facilitar la MEP de los impactos de manejos sostenibles e innovaciones agrícolas como la AR, el Capítulo 2 presenta un marco metodológico que guía la identificación y selección de indicadores técnicos y locales de calidad del suelo, conformando un sistema de monitorización para la evaluación participativa de la AR por parte de investigadoras/es y agricultoras/es. El marco metodológico incluye el desarrollo de una herramienta para la evaluación visual del suelo integrando indicadores locales de calidad de suelo para el monitoreo por parte de las agricultoras/es. El marco metodológico consta de 7 fases e incluye: Fase 1) Definición de objetivos de investigación y monitorización; Fase 2) Identificación, selección y priorización de Indicadores Técnicos de Calidad del Suelo (TISQ); Fase 3) Identificación, selección y priorización de Indicadores Locales de Calidad del Suelo (LISQ); Fase 4) Desarrollo de una herramienta de evaluación visual del suelo integrando LISQ; Fase 5) Puesta en práctica y validación de la herramienta de evaluación visual del suelo; Fase 6) Monitorización y evaluación de los impactos de los manejos implementados por parte de investigadoras/es y agricultoras/es, usando los TISQ y la herramienta de evaluación visual del suelo respectivamente y; Fase 7) Intercambio de los resultados de monitorización entre las participantes y evaluación conjunta de los impactos. Para facilitar la MEP de la AR en el altiplano estepario, se desarrolló este marco metodológico y fueron aplicadas las fases 1 a 5 a través de una serie de metodologías participativas que incluyeron una primera reunión con los miembros de la junta directiva de la asociación AlVelAl para la definición conjunta de objetivos de investigación, visitas a las fincas de las agricultoras/es participantes, el desarrollo de talleres participativos, y la realización de entrevistas formales e informales, entre otras. Las investigadoras/es participantes en la MEP identificaron, seleccionaron y priorizaron indicadores técnicos de calidad del suelo a través de una extensa revisión de literatura científica y la consulta ad-hoc a expertas/os con experiencia en monitorización y evaluación de calidad de suelos. Las agricultoras/es participantes identificaron, seleccionaron, priorizaron y validaron indicadores locales de calidad del suelo en dos talleres participativos. La herramienta de evaluación visual del suelo desarrollada conjuntamente, que denominamos Cuaderno de Campo, fue puesta en práctica y validada durante el segundo taller participativo. Los indicadores locales de calidad de suelo seleccionados por las agricultoras/es se enfocaron principalmente en la evaluación de servicios ecosistémicos de apoyo, regulación y abastecimiento, e incluyeron indicadores de regulación hidrológica, control de la erosión, fertilidad del suelo y rendimiento de los cultivos. Los indicadores técnicos de calidad del suelo seleccionados por las investigadoras/es se consistieron en propiedades fisicoquímicas y biológicas del suelo, incluyendo los indicadores: estabilidad de agregados, nutrientes del suelo, biomasa y actividad microbiana, y nutrientes foliares, y cubriendo importantes servicios ecosistémicos de apoyo. La información complementaria generada al combinar indicadores locales y técnicos de calidad de suelo permite ampliar la cobertura, viabilidad y efectividad en la MEP de los impactos de la AR, en comparación con usar de manera individual indicadores técnicos o indicadores locales. El marco metodológico desarrollado en este capítulo facilitó la identificación y selección de indicadores locales y técnicos de calidad del suelo para generar sistemas de monitorización y herramientas de evaluación visual de suelo relevantes y adaptadas a los contextos locales, lo que permite mejorar el intercambio de conocimientos y el aprendizaje mutuo entre agricultoras/es e investigadoras/es para apoyar la implementación de la AR y optimizar la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos., La implementación de la AR por parte de agricultoras/es generalmente ocurre de forma gradual debido a limitaciones socioeconómicas, informacionales, ambientales y políticas. Por ello, la adopción de la AR por parte de agricultoras/ es, se traduce en diferentes combinaciones de prácticas regenerativas y diversidad de manejos determinados por factores socioeconómicos, las capacidades de las agricultoras/es, las condiciones ambientales, y los resultados de restauración que se esperan conseguir. Para ayudar al diseño, adopción e implementación de las prácticas de AR más efectivas para optimizar la restauración de agroecosistemas degradados en ambientes semiáridos, el Capítulo 3 presenta la evaluación de los impactos de diferentes combinaciones de prácticas regenerativas implementadas por las agricultoras/es participantes en la MEP usando los indicadores técnicos de calidad de suelo y de rendimiento del cultivo previamente seleccionados. Este capítulo corresponde a la aplicación de la fase 6 del marco metodológico desarrollado en el capítulo 2. Este capítulo presenta la evaluación de impactos de la AR realizada durante dos años en 9 fincas, donde fueron seleccionados, junto con las agricultoras/es participantes, un campo con manejo regenerativo y un campo cercano con manejo convencional bajo laboreo frecuente (CT). Los campos bajo manejo regenerativo fueron agrupados en base a las prácticas de AR aplicadas, y se diferenciaron 4 tipos de tratamientos regenerativos: 1) laboreo reducido con abono verde (GM), 2) laboreo reducido con enmiendas orgánicas (OA), 3) laboreo reducido con abono verde y enmiendas orgánicas (GM&OA), y 4) no laboreo con cubiertas naturales permanentes y enmiendas orgánicas (NT&OA). Se evaluaron los impactos de la AR con respecto al manejo agrícola convencional comparando las propiedades físicas (densidad aparente y estabilidad agregada), químicas (pH, salinidad, N, P, K total, P disponible y cationes intercambiables) y biológicas (SOC, POC, PON, actividad microbiana) de la calidad del suelo y el estado nutricional de los almendros (N, P y K foliares). Nuestros resultados mostraron que el tratamiento GM mejoró las propiedades físicas del suelo, presentando una mayor estabilidad de agregados. Encontramos que el tratamiento OA mejoró la mayoría de las propiedades químicas y biológicas del suelo, mostrando mayores contenidos de SOC, POC, PON, N, K, P total, P disponible, cationes intercambiables y actividad microbiana. Los tratamientos regenerativos que combinaron cubiertas naturales o abonos verdes con enmiendas orgánicas (GM&OA y NT&OA) exhibieron una mayor restauración general de la calidad del suelo en comparación con los tratamientos con prácticas individuales (GM y OA). El tratamiento NT&OA destacó por presentar las mayores mejorías en la restauración de la calidad del suelo comparado con el manejo convencional. Todos los tratamientos regenerativos mantuvieron un estado nutricional de los almendros similar al manejo convencional. Concluimos que la AR tiene un gran potencial para restaurar la calidad física, química y biológica de los suelos en agroecosistemas de leñosos en el semiárido Mediterráneo sin comprometer el estado nutricional de los cultivos. Es de esperar que los manejos que incluyen múltiples prácticas regenerativas sean más efectivos en la restauración de la calidad del suelo que los manejos con prácticas regenerativas individuales., Paralelamente a la evaluación de los impactos de la AR por parte de las investigadoras/es, las agricultoras/es evaluaron los impactos de la AR en sus fincas, utilizando la herramienta de evaluación visual del suelo (Cuaderno de campo), desarrollada conjuntamente en los talleres participativos. El Capítulo 4 presenta los resultados de la evaluación de los impactos de la AR por parte de las agricultoras/es. También presenta las observaciones y la evaluación por parte las/los agricultores, realizadas en el tercer año desde el inicio de la MEP, sobre el proceso de evaluación visual del suelo usando el Cuaderno de Campo, así como sobre el impacto de la MEP en facilitar procesos de participación y aprendizaje en las agricultoras/es participantes. Este capítulo corresponde a la aplicación de las fases 6 y 7 del marco metodológico desarrollado en el Capítulo 2. La monitorización por parte las agricultoras/es mostró que la AR tiene potencial para restaurar agroecosistemas degradados en el semiárido Mediterráneo, aunque las mejoras observadas sobre la calidad del suelo fueron relativamente pequeñas con respecto al manejo convencional, siendo necesario más tiempo y mayores esfuerzos para alcanzar los objetivos de restauración deseados. Las pequeñas mejoras en la calidad del suelo documentadas por las agricultoras/es fueron complementarias a los hallazgos obtenidos por las investigadoras/es usando indicadores técnicos de calidad de suelo. Las agricultoras/es destacaron la MEP como un proceso de aprendizaje que les ayudó a ver sus suelos y sus esfuerzos de restauración de manera diferente, y que facilitó la creación de relaciones de apoyo y el desarrollo de habilidades en ellas/os, los cuales son requisitos fundamentales para fomentar la eficiencia y la adopción de innovaciones agrícolas. Las agricultoras/es confirmaron que la generación de espacios que favorecen el intercambio de conocimientos entre agricultoras/ es, así como las experiencias agrícolas en finca (in situ), son un factor clave para fomentar la experimentación y adopción de innovaciones agrícolas por parte de la comunidad agrícola. Además, las observaciones realizadas por las participantes revelaron la necesidad de involucrar activamente a las agricultoras/es en todas las fases de diseño y toma de decisiones en el desarrollo de herramientas de evaluación visual del suelo con el fin de generar herramientas que satisfagan sus necesidades. Junto con ello, se dedujo que el apoyo del equipo investigador a las agricultoras/ es en las primeras implementaciones de dichas herramientas puede contribuir a mejorar su adopción, facilitando que las usuarias/os consigan los objetivos de restauración deseados. Asimismo, la evaluación del Cuaderno de Campo por parte de las agricultoras/es indicó la necesidad de reforzar la utilidad multipropósito y los beneficios potenciales de registrar de forma sistematizada y colectiva los progresos de restauración, con el fin de aumentar la adopción de estas herramientas por parte de las usuarias/os a las que van dirigidas. La evaluación de la MEP por parte de las agricultoras/es refuerza la importancia de desarrollar comunidades de aprendizaje entre agricultoras/es e investigadoras/es que proporcionen una plataforma para el intercambio de experiencias y de apoyo en el proceso de investigación, lo cual es considerado un factor crucial para favorecer el aprendizaje social y apoyar la adopción de innovaciones agrícolas a largo plazo. Este capítulo concluyó que el éxito de las investigaciones enfocadas a la restauración de agroecosistemas puede incrementar mediante la integración de fases iterativas en las que agricultoras/ es puedan evaluar y ajustar las actividades y los resultados de investigación. Los procesos de MEP, que contribuyen a mejorar el capital social, el aprendizaje social y a generar una mayor comprensión de los esfuerzos de restauración, tienen tanto valor como los propios resultados de restauración sobre el terreno., El aprendizaje social es considerado un prerrequisito crucial para la adopción de manejos sostenibles e innovaciones agrícolas adaptados a los diferentes contextos. El objetivo principal de desarrollar una investigación de MEP involucrando a investigadoras/es y agricultoras/es en el altiplano estepario fue permitir el aprendizaje social para lograr una mejor comprensión de los impactos de la AR y así mejorar su adopción. Aunque existen cada vez más investigaciones científicas que afirman que los procesos participativos fomentan el aprendizaje social, este concepto ha sido definido de forma muy diversa, ha sido rara vez evaluado, y ha sido abordado de manera parcial sin cubrir su dimensión cognitiva y su dimensión relacional. Establecer que un proceso participativo ha favorecido el aprendizaje social, implica demostrar que se ha generado una adquisición de conocimientos y que se ha producido un cambio en las percepciones, a nivel individual y a nivel colectivo, de las personas implicadas en el proceso, y que este cambio de percepciones ha sido generado gracias al establecimiento de relaciones sociales, de intercambio de información y experiencias. El Capítulo 5 evalúa cómo la MEP de la AR en el altiplano estepario favoreció el aprendizaje social en las agricultoras/es participantes, mejorando la comprensión de los impactos de la AR al aumentar de manera efectiva el intercambio de conocimientos entre ellas/os, con las investigadoras/es participantes, y con otras personas que forman parte de sus redes sociales. Este capítulo presenta resultados necesarios para probar si la MEP de la AR favoreció el aprendizaje social en las agriculturas/es participantes, evaluando tanto la dimensión social-cognitiva (percepciones) como la dimensión social-relacional (redes sociales) del aprendizaje social. Además, en este capítulo se discute el potencial de la MEP para favorecer la adopción de manejos sostenibles e innovaciones agrícolas a gran escala gracias a fomentar la generación de flujos de información entre las agricultoras/es participantes y la comunidad agrícola de la que forman parte. Utilizamos el mapeo cognitivo difuso (fuzzy cognitive mapping) y el análisis de redes sociales como métodos gráficos semi-cuantitativos para evaluar los cambios de percepciones y de flujos de información compartidos por las agricultoras/ es sobre la AR, antes de empezar la MEP y después de transcurridos tres años de investigación. Nuestros resultados mostraron que la MEP favoreció el aprendizaje social en las agricultoras/es participantes, quienes fortalecieron y ampliaron sus redes sociales de intercambio de información sobre AR, presentando un conocimiento más complejo, común y amplio de los impactos y beneficios de la AR. De esto modo, se demostró que la MEP genera prerrequisitos cruciales para mejorar la adopción de la AR. Este estudio fue uno de los primeros en el ámbito del manejo sostenible de recursos naturales e innovaciones agrícolas que demuestra empíricamente el favorecimiento del aprendizaje social a través de procesos de investigación participativa, proporcionando evidencias tanto en su dimensión social-cognitiva como en su dimensión social-relacional. Nuestros hallazgos tienen una gran relevancia para el diseño de procesos de MEP, como pueden ser los living labs y otras iniciativas de restauración de ecosistemas, que tengan como objetivo apoyar, fortalecer y fomentar la adopción por parte de las comunidades agrícolas de manejos sostenibles e innovaciones agrícolas adaptadas a los diferentes contextos. Las investigaciones de MEP, donde la participación democrática de las/ os participantes y las necesidades de las comunidades agrícolas son consideradas centrales en el proceso de investigación, representan una gran oportunidad para generar procesos inclusivos, atractivos, eficientes y transiciones sólidas hacia agroecosistemas sostenibles y resilientes a largo plazo., This research was conducted within the PhD program “Natural Resources and Sustainable Management” in the research team on Agroecology, Food Sovereignty and Commons of the University of Córdoba (Spain), and the Soil and Water Conservation Research Group of the Centre for Applied Soil Science and Biology of the Segura, of the Spanish National Research Council (CEBAS-CSIC), and supported by a PhD fellowship of La Caixa Foundation (ID100010434) (LCF/BQ/ES17/11600008) Chapter 4 - This work was supported by ”la Caixa” Foundation (ID100010434) through a PhD fellowship to RLS (LCF/BQ/ES17/11600008), and by the projects DECADE (Séneca Foundation, 20917/PI/18), and XTREME (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation PID2019-109381RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). Chapter 5 - This work was supported by ”la Caixa” Foundation (ID100010434) through a PhD fellowship to RLS (LCF/BQ/ES17/11600008), and by the projects DECADE (Seneca Foundation, 20917/PI/18), XTREME (Ministry of Science and Innovation PID2019-109381RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and COASTAL (EU H2020 grant agreement N° 773782). For the Portuguese co-authors, this work was partially funded by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the Project UIDB/05183/2020., Chapter 2 - This chapter was published as: Luján Soto, R., Cuéllar Padilla, M., and de Vente, J. 2020. Participatory selection of soil quality indicators for monitoring the impacts of regenerative agriculture on ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services, 45, 101157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101157Chapter 3 - This chapter was published as: Luján Soto, R., Martínez-Mena, M., Cuéllar Padilla, M., and de Vente, J. 2021. Restoring soil quality of woody agroecosystems in Mediterranean drylands through regenerative agriculture. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 306, 107191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2020.107191Chapter 4 - This chapter is a preprint version adapted from: Luján Soto, R., de Vente, J., and Cuéllar Padilla, M. 2021. Learning from farmers´ experiences with participatory monitoring and evaluation of regenerative agriculture based on visual soil assessment. Journal of Rural Studies (in review)Chapter 5 - This chapter is adapted and published as: Luján Soto, R., Cuéllar Padilla, M., Rivera Méndez, M., PintoCorreia, T., Boix-Fayos, C., and de Vente, J. 2021. Participatory monitoring and evaluation of regenerative agriculture to enable social learning, adoption and out-scaling. Ecology & Society.

The advanced state of land degradation worldwide urges the large-scale adoption of sustainable land management (SLM). Social learning is considered an important precondition for the adoption of innovative and contextualized SLM. Involving farmers and researchers in participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) of innovative SLM such as regenerative agriculture is expected to enable social learning. Although there is a growing body of literature asserting the achievement of social learning through participatory processes, social learning has been loosely defined, sparsely assessed, and only partially covered when measured. Here, we assess how PM&E of regenerative agriculture, involving local farmers and researchers in southeast Spain, enabled social learning, effectively increasing knowledge exchange and shared understanding of regenerative agriculture effects among participating farmers. We measured whether social learning occurred by covering its social-cognitive (perceptions) and social-relational (social networks) dimensions, and discussed the potential of PM&E to foster SLM adoption and out-scaling. We used fuzzy cognitive mapping and social network analysis as graphical semiquantitative methods to assess changes in farmers¿ perceptions and shared fluxes of information on regenerative agriculture over approximately three years. Our results show that PM&E enabled social learning among participating farmers, who strengthened and enlarged their social networks for information sharing and presented a more complex and broader shared understanding of regenerative agriculture effects and benefits than pre PM&E. We argue that PM&E thereby creates crucial preconditions for SLM adoption and out-scaling. Our findings are relevant for the design of PM&E processes, living labs, and landscape restoration initiatives that aim to support farmers¿ adoption and out-scaling of innovative and contextualized SLM., This work was supported by “la Caixa” Foundation (ID100010434) through a PhD fellowship to RLS (LCF/BQ/ES17/11600008), and by the projects DECADE (Seneca Foundation, 20917/PI/18), XTREME (Ministry of Science and Innovation PID2019-109381RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), and COASTAL (EU H2020 grant agreement 773782). For the Portuguese coauthors, this work was partially funded by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the Project UIDB/05183/2020

It is becoming increasingly clear that our food and agriculture system is not working for the vast majority of humans, other animals, and ecosystems. We need to shift from the present unsustainable paradigm of industrial agriculture to one that is ecologically sustainable (without which economic, social, and environmental sustainability is not possible). This chapter explores what such an ecologically sustainable agricultural paradigm might look like. It starts by discussing the origins and impacts of the current dominant paradigm—the industrial Green Revolution paradigm. It then reviews the origins and characteristics of some of the alternative agricultural paradigms that have developed alongside and in response to the industrial paradigm, namely Organic Agriculture, Agroecology, Regenerative Agriculture, and Conservation Agriculture. This is followed by an assessment of the compatibility of these alternative paradigms with ecological sustainability, and suggests ways to optimize their potential for sustainability. The chapter concludes with a discussion of ways forward and future prospects for alternative agriculture paradigms in the context of an “inclusively responsible” food and agriculture system.

Threats to sustainable food production are accelerating due to climate change, population growth, depletion of natural capital, and global market instability. This causes significant risks to farmers, consumers, and financial and policy institutions. Understanding agro-ecosystems, and how varying management styles can impact their performance is critical to future wellbeing. To better understand and manage agricultural production, we have developed a dynamic simulation model that accounts for the core natural capital components of agro-ecosystems, including climate, soil, carbon, water, nitrogen, phosphorus, microorganisms, erosion, crops, farm animals and plants. Dynamic Agro-Ecosystem Simulation (DAESim) model can be used to simulate dynamics of soil health and project it into the future to assess vulnerabilities and resilience. This knowledge can inform and guide investment decisions by financial institutions, insurance companies, farmers, and governmental agencies. Here, we describe the basic model structure, sensitivity, and calibration results. We then run a few scenarios to demonstrate the model's ability to analyze alternative agro-ecosystem management options.

CONTEXT: Well-managed agricultural land can provide ecosystem services and contribute positively to the environment. Many of these services are mediated through the soil and are referred to as soil functions. Regenerative agriculture is a mode of agriculture that uses soil conservation as the entry point to regenerate and contribute to these ecosystem services, with the aspiration that this will enhance not only environmental, but also social and economic dimensions of food production. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this paper is to create a modelling framework which allows the ex-ante redesign of diverse farming systems and assessment of ecosystem services associated with regenerative agriculture in diverse pedo-climatic conditions. METHODS: Within this modelling framework we combined two models (Soil Navigator (SN) and FarmDESIGN (FD)) to consider soil attributes at the field-scale and environmental and socio-economic outcomes at farm-scale. We used a Dutch dairy-farm as case-study to demonstrate how this framework can be used to assess associated ecosystem services and explore alternative farm configurations. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Combining SN with FD indicated what ecosystem services could be improved in a local context. Together these models help to evaluate the impact of soil management practices as the basis for exploring the overall socio-economic and environmental sustainability of our dairy case-study farm. For our dairy case-study farm, we found a set of management practices that delivered four out of the five functions at a high capacity, at the expense of primary productivity (from high to medium) and farm profitability (from 55,620 to 40,720 € yr−1). The decline in primary productivity, however, causes an improvement in other ecosystem services such as, climate regulation (increased from medium to high) and the soil organic matter surplus (increased with 7%). While this study successfully demonstrated an initial combination of SN and FD models for the ex-ante redesign and assessment of farming systems towards regenerative agriculture, further model development is essential to widen the applicability of this study to include emerging farming practices and new indicators of sustainability that are measured over a longer period. SIGNIFICANCE: For regenerative agriculture to be meaningful for diverse farming systems, we need methods that give insight into the efficacy of regenerative management to meet multiple ecosystem services within local contexts. As such, our modelling framework can be used by researchers as a tool to help various stakeholders to assess and redesign farms based on the objectives of regenerative agriculture.

Agriculture is a major contributor to environmental degradation and climate change. At the same time, a growing human population with changing dietary preferences is driving ever increasing demand for food. The need for urgent reform of agriculture is widely recognized and has resulted in a number of ambitious plans. However, there is credible evidence to suggest that these are unlikely to meet the twin objectives of keeping the increase in global temperature within the target of 2.0 °C above preindustrial levels set out in the Paris Agreement and delivering global food security. Here, we discuss a series of technological options to bring about change in agriculture for delivering food security and providing multiple routes to the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. These technologies include the use of silicate amendment of soils to sequester atmospheric CO2, agronomy technologies to increase soil organic carbon, and high-yielding resource-efficient crops to deliver increased agricultural yield, thus freeing land that is less suited for intensive cropping for land use practices that will further increase carbon storage. Such alternatives include less intensive regenerative agriculture, afforestation and bioenergy crops coupled with carbon capture and storage technologies.