Issues Bedeviling Our Current Agricultural System
Farmers Farm Against Nature Instead of Farming With Her
Through the degenerative agriculture practices of many farmers, the vast majority of the agricultural soils in Africa and the world at large are totally out of balance when it comes to soil biology and overall fertility.
The protracted physical and chemical disturbances to the agricultural soils are resulting in their failure to hold water and recycle nutrients which are two critical soil functions that mitigate biogeochemical and hydrological imbalances on a global scale.
Our soil health is irretrievably being washed into the oceans. There are swathes of degraded soils, and widespread decline in belowground (soil) biodiversity.
The degradation of the lands, soils and local terrestrial ecosystems are harming the people who depend on these natural resources as well as our climate.
Our Regenerative Solution
Our Roles and Services
We develop and execute well-defined transformative soil health and regenerative agriculture based advocacy/campaign, sensitization, educational, training/demonstration, carbon farming, seminar and workshop programmes as tested and tried solutions to soil, nutrient and biodiversity losses, food and climate crises.
We provide leadership and the platform for regenerative agriculture programmes to help farmers re-establish belowground interactions among plant roots, fungi, bacteria and micro- and macrofauna which are all destroyed once vegetation is removed and soil is upturned, buried, or eroded away.
Our regenerative solution design leads farmers and prospective farmers alike in discovering the spiritual connection to the living soil, and mastering the core ideas of regenerative agriculture for:
1) responsible management of soil through reduced tilling, limits on nitrogen fertilizers, use of cover crops, and prioritization of animal and plant diversity.
2) promotion of soil health that will protect farms against extreme weather and create higher annual crop yields for farmers.
3) the support needed for agricultural carbon sequestration to reduce emissions and make farming carbon neutral.
Professional Support for Transitioning To Regenerative Ag Paradigm
Our programme works to essentially help farmers with the mindset shift for transitioning from degenerative agriculture paradigm to regenerative agriculture paradigm thereby arming them with the knowledge, skills and attitude to build and protect healthy soil that makes for:
Increased Soil Carbon to reverse climate change.
Increased Water Holding Capacity and Infiltration to improve drought tolerance and restores water supplies.
Increased Soil Aggregation and Soil Life to create more fertility and the ability to feed the world.
Increased Nutrient Availability and Retention.
Our Soil Health Principles & Pledge
At Health of the Soil, the following 5 Principles of Soil Health have been adapted from Farmer Gabe Brown and integrated into our sensitization and training programmes:
1. We Do Not Disturb the Soil
We teach farmers to avoid plowing the soil, and abstain from harmful chemical amendments. Tilling/plowing practices are like demolishing a house, making it difficult for the complex soil ecosystem to thrive.
2. We Keep Armour on the Soil
Covered soil (living plants or trampled/dead plant material covering the soil surface) reduces soil erosion from wind and rain and helps keep soil temperatures down.
3. We Diversify
Growing a diversity of plants ensures nutrient-dense soil, increases soil carbon, and reduces the risk of pests and diseases.
4. We Maintain Living Roots
Keeping living roots in the ground year-round (or as long as possible) provides a steady source of food for organisms in the soil. In turn, the soil microorganisms help prevent soil erosion, increase water infiltration rates, and provide the plants with key nutrients.
5. We Integrate Farm Animals
Including animals in the farming system closes the nutrient loop and reduces the need for imported fertilizers. Of course, the correct farm animals to use will depend on the ecosystem.
Our Approach With Smallholder Farmers
In working to connect farmers to the regenerative agriculture paradigm (including catalysing the modern breakthrough understanding of the soil biology) to achieve local food abundance/sovereignty as well as helping with process of carbon farming, we leverage 3 typical characteristic approaches:
Review It —Understanding The Local Conditions in Agriculture of Each Community
Our work starts with the strategic sociological review of local conditions in agriculture including farmers’ relational values with soil health that might be leading to soil degradation in their farms.
The data generated will be professionally used to create a friendly educational module that will offer scalable solutions for the local farmers.
Synergize It —Indigenous Knowledge, Modern Soil Biology and Regenerative Agriculture
After our Review It stage, we always, through systematic observation and unbiased testing, engage in the development of synergy between some Indigenous knowledge and modern breakthrough understanding of soil biology science and marry them with our principles of Regenerative Ag to create a holistic user-friendly information systems, protocols and standards.
Scale It Up —Escalate the New Ideas and Knowledge
Taking successful initial interventions to scale is critical to reaching a greater number of people which is part of our broader process of innovation and learning and ways of creating larger regional impacts.
Our scale up process generally occurs in an iterative and interactive cycle, as the experience from scaling up may feed back into new ideas and learning.
In scaling up our model to create the much needed larger impacts, we make sure to involve local authorities including the Stools, farmers’ associations, business community and the academia.
