Approved work: Regenerative agriculture

Current agricultural practices have caused erosion, compaction, carbon loss, nutrient imbalances in soils, and contribute to water and air pollution. Crop production, including field vegetables on lowland drained and cultivated peat soils, are the largest source of land use GHG emissions in the UK.

Regenerative agriculture has no agreed standardised definition. It can be described as a set of practices that focus on ecological restoration of soil ecosystems: keeping soil surfaces covered; maintaining living roots year-round; minimising soil disturbance; growing a diverse range of crops; bringing grazing animals back to the land, and sometimes reducing synthetic chemical inputs. These soil conservation practices may help restore some natural soil processes, but the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils are combined in a connected complex way from which soil functions and emergent properties arise, creating challenges for predicting outcomes. There is some convergence in relation to environmental objectives, but social and economic aspects of regenerative agriculture remain uncertain.

Work will commence in March 2025, with publication expected in June 2025.  We will accept stakeholder contributions until 23:59 06 April 2025.