After Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973, the practice of intensive farming – using chemical fertilisers, machinery and large-scale production methods – began in earnest.
This brought prosperity but harmed soils, reduced biodiversity and added to global warming. Regenerative farming offers a pathway to recover the lost benefits of less intensive practices.
There are many definitions of regenerative farming, but experts agree its goal is to improve soil health and biodiversity, to support the productivity and resilience of natural resources and to prevent them being steadily depleted over time, as is occurring in Ireland.
Historically, Irish farms supported the long-term health of soils by rotating fields between grassland and crops, and building up the soil carbon essential for producing fertile and functioning soils.
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Yet, since the 1970s, this practice of field rotation has declined, and been replaced by intensive farming, a way of agriculture that uses high inputs of synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides to maximise crop yield or livestock production for a given land area.
Dr Dara Stanley, associate professor in applied entomology at University College Dublin, is an expert in agroecology.
This involves the management of agricultural systems so that plants, animals and humans interact optimally and produce a fair and resilient food production system.
“Regenerative farming works in harmony with nature and natural ecosystem processes,” says Stanley. The goal, she says, is to restore and encourage “ecosystem services” such as nutrient cycling, pest control and pollination provided by healthy land and wildlife.
Healthy soils are the hill on which the regenerative farming battle will be won or lost as they are home to the ecosystems that support plants, regulate water and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
The quality of soils across Ireland varies by location, says Dermot Forristal, research officer at Teagasc’s Crops Research Centre in Oak Park, Carlow, but the ongoing decline in soil carbon content is being seen everywhere as long-term grasslands convert to tillage.
“Permanent grassland tends to have high carbon in the soil because of constant root structures,” says Forristal. “When land is converted to tillage, soil carbon drops quickly, but then stabilises at a lower level.”
It is key, he says, that organic matter is built up and microbial diversity maintained when grassland goes over to tillage.
Dr John Lynch, an environmental scientist at the University of Oxford, says that while a green field may look healthy, it can still lack the soil microbial diversity it needs for cycling of nutrients.
He says the dominance of ryegrass species in Irish dairy and grazing farms threatens soils by limiting their ecological complexity.
Arable cropping practices and mismanaged grazing expose soil leading to damaging carbon losses and soil erosion.
“The biggest threat to soils is leaving them bare,” he says.
Farmers need to see that while taking on regenerative measures such as reintegration of livestock into a system of arable crop rotations or reducing nitrogen fertilisers may come at a short-term cost, over the longer term it benefits soil health and reduces carbon emissions
Other problems include the use of intensive inputs such as synthetic nitrogen fertilisers and pesticides which simplifies plant and microbial communities in the soil.
This undercuts natural ecosystem cycles, Lynch says, and encourages release of nitrous oxide and methane emissions from ruminant livestock.
Stanley says insect pollinators are crucial to renewable agriculture given that nearly 90 per cent of Ireland’s flowering plants depend on them.
The decline of many wild pollinators, such as bumblebees, must be addressed, she says, as it represents a long-term risk to both natural and agricultural ecosystems in Ireland, though crops have not yet shown major pollination deficits here.
A healthy natural biodiversity supports the ecosystem services essential for farming, such as natural pest control and soil health, Stanley says, but intensive farming that removes field margins and hedgerows, or heavy pesticide use, disrupts such natural supports.
There is an urgent need to introduce farm management practices that will protect pollinators and engage with the wider countryside, she says.
“Many of these ecological processes operate beyond the farm gate, so a landscape-scale approach is necessary.”
Moving into regenerative agriculture will not be a simple task, and it will require farmers to deploy several tools. “It’s not a case of ploughing is bad and non-plough tillage is good,” says Forristal.
“Farmers want to see returns within a season, but soil carbon changes take a generation to measure,” he says. Without policy certainty and financial support, he adds, farmers will be cautious.
The economic pressures that are on farmers must be recognised to encourage sustainable transition with the focus on evidence-based incentives, says Lynch.
“Farmers want to farm sustainably, but there’s a balance between soil health and yield,” he says.
Farmers need to see that while taking on regenerative measures such as reintegration of livestock into a system of arable crop rotations or reducing nitrogen fertilisers may come at a short-term cost, over the longer term it benefits soil health and reduces carbon emissions.
Stanley says “farmers need flexibility” and “what works on one farm might not on another.”
She says consumer choices are influential too as when people are buying organic or local produce it encourages farmers to adopt sustainable practices.
There is a toolbox of regenerative techniques that are starting to be used and gain acceptance by Irish farmers, says Forristal.
It includes the use of cover cropping – where non-harvested crops such as radish, vetch or mustard are grown between the main cycles of crops of barley, wheat or potatoes but not for direct sale or consumption. These can cover and protect the soil, he says.
Other techniques he highlights include reducing tillage frequency, rotating arable fields with grass, and integrating clover and other nitrogen-fixers (plants that convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates that can be use for nutrition) into soils and grasslands.
A further method that is also proving its regenerative worth, says Forristal, is so-called “mob grazing”, where animals are densely grazed on small plots and moved around frequently. This has shown promise for improving soil carbon and animal health.
The Teagasc Research Centre in Carlow is a centre for regenerative farming research and has promising collaborations with UCD investigating levels of soil carbon in various farming systems.
There are also European Union research projects, involving Stanley, that are investigating the link between the health of soils and that of pollinator species.
Meanwhile the Irish Government has initiated Acres (Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme), which pays farmers to adopt biodiversity and ecosystem support measures.
Stanley says any efforts to restore natural ecosystems will be critically dependent on how well we support bees and other pollinators, promote nutrient recycling and introduce natural pest controls.
Forristal says that for crops to thrive, soils must be actively improved rather than permitted to slip into further decline. For this to happen, he says, new practices must suit the Irish climate.
“The definition of regenerative agriculture can vary by region and climate,” says Forristal.
Importing practices from places such as the midwest of the United States carries risk, he says, as the rainfall levels here require different practices, as do efforts to control weeds with chemicals.
He also advises there may be no quick return on new practices.
“It takes often a generation of time to get measuring changes in soil carbon making it hard for farmers to commit to practices whose benefits may only become clear to their grandchildren,” he says.
Economic incentives matter, says Forristal. These are needed because farmers see that leaving land fallow to allow soils recover, as required by regenerative farming, means they will not earn as much as they would from following the intensive approach.
Consumer responsibility also matters, says Stanley. This means “supporting local and sustainable producers, tolerating imperfect produce and looking for meaningful certifications,” she says.
“If public and market pressure grows it may tilt the balance towards a more regenerative future.”
