Contemporary agricultural practices jeopardize the biological balance of the soil, overlooking microorganisms that directly impact fertility.
Regenerative agriculture, with a holistic view of the agroecosystem, places soil at the center of production, utilizing all tools, methods, and techniques to improve soil health—its biological, physical, and chemical properties—without contributing to long-term soil degradation. Soil health is a primary lever directly linked to the health, vitality, and resilience of individuals and populations within the agroecosystem, as well as the agroecosystem as a whole.
The principles of regenerative agriculture aim to provide a framework for designing sustainable agroecosystems. They are not a recipe for managing or creating a specific agroecosystem but an iterative process of observation, learning, and adaptation. The principles and practices of regenerative agriculture create a framework for a sustainable food production system.
Practices of regenerative ecological agriculture include:
- Intensive ecological horticulture with minimal soil tillage
- Polyculture orcharding - growing multiple fruit and companion plant species in the same orchard
- Extensive livestock farming - holistically planned intensive rotational grazing
- Intercropping - crops grown between rows of perennial crops (agroforestry system, i.e., intercropping of cultures); cropping with cover crops (pre-crop, post-crop, cover crop, green manure) and long-term diverse crop rotation; soil tillage without plowing (no-till) or with conservation tillage; subsoiling parallel to the slope of the terrain (vertical to the slope) according to the pattern of key topographic lines.
- Plant and soil nutrition with compost, compost tea, biostimulants and botanical preparations, biochar, animal integration, and green manure or plant and animal-based fertilizers (mowings, manure, by-products of industry, etc.).
- Agroforestry - alley cropping in perennial crops, windbreaks, and edible hedges; forest gardens (mushroom cultivation, beekeeping, grazing, etc.).
- Terrain changes: terraces, ditches, accumulations, dry stone walls
- Plant protection based on ecological or integrated plant protection
The Ananda Center for Human Development will develop agricultural plantations on part of the foundation land through organized planting and cultivation actions of pre-planned agricultural crops, all through the system of educational regenerative agricultural polygons.
This model fosters trust, solidarity, and familiarity with ecological agricultural activities among participants/users of ecological agriculture