Madan Poudel

Nepalese agriculture is facing multiple crisis- degrading soil fertility, soil erosion, lack of organic matter in soil, haphazard use of agro chemicals, increasing encrosement of arable land with urbanization, land abandonment in the rural areas and rapid rural youth exodus to urban and foreign land. In context of farming being more vulnerable to impacts of climate change and induced disasters, dependency of farmers for agro-inputs, and lack of reliable market makes farmers vulnerable causing farmers to be the trap.

Regenerative agriculture is the context specific and outcome focused practices that focuses on improving soil health, increase biodiversity, increase carbon sequestration and elimates the dependency of farmers, increasing free will and improves livelihood of farmers. To reverse the impact of climate change, it is required to build resilience in agrifood systems as well as reduce deforestation and degradation of critical landscapes and native vegetation and promote adoption of regenerative agriculture, climate- and water-smart agriculture, and/or landscape-level approaches for conservation. The excessive and indiscriminate use of pesticides on various crops can have detrimental effects on species within the food web (Alengebawy et al., 2021). Long-term consumption of vegetables and fruits grown in pesticide-contaminated soil and water can lead to the accumulation of toxins in the body, increasing the risk of chronic diseases like neurotoxicity, cancer, necrosis, asthma, reproductive disorders, cardiac disease, and diabetes (Kalyabina et al., 2021). Recent news reports Sixty one vegetable farmers suffered from Cancer and 15 of them from Kidney failure in Gandaki Municipality, Gorkha, Nepal (Rising Nepal Daily, 2024).

In contrast to a blanket approach of disseminating different farming technologies and practices, Regenerative agriculture is a context specific and outcome based approach for enhancing and improving soil health, optimising resource management, alleviating climate change, improving nutrient cycling and water quality and availability etc. (Schreefel et.al, 2020). Regenerative agriculture (RA) is examined for evaluations of inputs and processes and impacts on outputs. The interventions like biochar based biofertilizer application improve soil nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, plus promotion of soil microbiota (Gopal et al., 2020). Biochar is today one of the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies with the highest technology readiness level (TRL 8–9) that can ensure permanent removals while improving soil health (Chiaramonti et al., 2024). Another intervention of regenerative agriculture - syntropic farming and/or regenerative agroforestry’s potentials are immense. Syntropic farming revives nutrient-depleted soils and increases biodiversity, producing food efficiently and providing carbon sequestration, these methods are an antidote to some of our most pressing environmental challenges (Andrade & Pasini, 2020). Healthy soil is the foundation of a healthy food system. Nutrient-rich crops and animals raised on regenerative land lead to healthier people.

The project key innovation lies in developing a system that rewards and incentivizes the farmers and land stewards who are protecting the vital ecosystems. Unlike other sustainability project, this project goes beyond the normal norms of practicing farming and explore ways how farmers can be build resilience and independence in key farm inputs. Some of the innovation features- biochar which can be produced locally from available waste biomass, biochar based biofertilizer for increasing crop productivity, biochar based carbon credits as an mechanism for incentivizing the stewardship. Besides this, the components of accelerator program, which is designed for young people for regenerative transition is also quite innovative as it takes different measures of capacity development. The syntropic agroforestry techniques is innovative in several aspects- as it provides biomass, improves quality and is one of the best regenerative agriculture practice. The project overall empowers youth and farmers and develops resilience in the farming system.