Regenerative agriculture is a fundamental tool to confront the climate crisis, claimed specialists in a debate organized by IICA at the Borlaug International Dialogue

San José, 19 October 2023 (IICA) – Important agri-food stakeholders of the Americas from the public and private sectors underscored the importance of regenerative agriculture as an irreplaceable tool to tackle the environmental crisis facing humanity.

Good agricultural practices, aimed at repairing the environment, contribute not only to greater productivity but also to the conservation of natural resources and the mitigation of climate change, agreed the experts that came together in a panel organized by the Inter-American Institute of Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), within the framework of the 2023 Borlaug Dialogue, hosted by the World Food Prize Foundation (WFP).
 
The WFP – based in Iowa, United States – promotes innovation and actions aimed at sustainably increasing the quality and quantity of food available to the planet's population. Every year it awards the World Food Prize, considered the Nobel Prize in this field, to people who make the most significant and innovative contributions to food and nutritional security.
 
Global leaders, agricultural producers, academics, scientists, educators and students from more than 65 countries participate in the Borlaug Dialogue to discuss the most pressing matters, with a view to exploring solutions to achieve more sustainable, equitable and inclusive agri-food systems.
 
This year's edition focuses on how to leverage innovation and production diversification to improve resilience to climate change, promote recovery after extreme weather events, and feed the world sustainably.
 
The debate organized by IICA was one of the official side events of the Borlaug Dialogue, which will formally begin next week, and had among its speakers the scientist Rattan Lal, 2020 World Food Prize winner and considered the world's leading authority on soil sciences; Zulfikar Mustapha, Minister of Agriculture of Guyana; Renata Miranda, Secretary of Innovation, Sustainable Development, Irrigation and Cooperatives of Brazil; and Marcello Brito, Executive Secretary of the Legal Amazon Consortium, which brings together the Amazon states of Brazil.
 
Also taking part in the discussion were Juan Pablo Llobet, Regional Director for Latin America of Syngenta; Alessandra Fajardo, Director of Bayer's Food Value Chain Partnership; and Elvia Monzón, a Guatemalan farmer who received the IICA Soul of Rurality award for her contribution to food security.
 
The opening remarks were given by the Director General of IICA, Manuel Otero.

Soils as carbon sinks
 
“If we manage soils properly, their carbon sequestration potential is enormous. They can capture up to 25% of fossil fuel emissions, thus significantly contributing to the goal of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said Rattan Lal, who co-leads with IICA the Living Soils of the Americas program.
 
Mr. Lal, Director of the Rattan Lal Carbon Management and Sequestration Center (C-MASC) at Ohio State University, stated that regenerative agriculture is not just a practice, but a productive philosophy inspired by ecological innovation and the use of energies not generated from fossil fuels that aim to put carbon from the atmosphere back into the soil.
 
“We must demonstrate – he argued – that this can generate additional income for farmers, since carbon can also be bought and sold, just like other greenhouse gases. We must promote greater circulation of carbon certificates, so that governments or companies can pay farmers to remove carbon from the atmosphere and return it to the soil".
 
Minister Mustapha said that the push for regenerative agriculture is key for Guyana due to its importance for productive sustainability and for improving yields. “We have had many problems due to extreme events, such as floods. As a result, we have looked into more sustainable practices, and climate change has forced us to change our traditional agricultural approach. Today we promote smart agriculture, with greater infrastructure and crop diversification,” said Mustapha.
 
For her part, Renata Miranda explained that the priority of the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil is to guarantee food security in the current context of climate change.
 
“Food security is essential, as it reduces violence and helps resolve issues such as education. It is one of the cornerstones of society. When we talk about regenerative agriculture, we also talk about a commitment to food security,” she said.
 
Businesses committed to sustainability
 
Alessandra Fajardo and Juan Pablo Llobet presented the initiatives carried out in the Americas by Bayer and Syngenta, to promote more resilient agriculture in the face of climate change thanks to research and new technologies.

“We have goals for 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in the countries where we work. This will improve the lives of 6 million small-scale farmers. Our sustainability goals are undoubtedly linked to regenerative agriculture,” the Bayer specialist stated.
 
Fajardo also explained the details of the Pro Carbon Program, a Bayer initiative that works in Argentina with producers willing to expand their productivity and increase soil carbon sequestration through sustainable agricultural practices.
 
Juan Pablo Llobet explained that, for Syngenta, regenerative agriculture means the development and generation of innovation, and technology that is complemented by agricultural practices aimed at improving soil health and the conservation of biodiversity.
 
“We seek to provide innovation to make crops more resilient to climate change. The priority is to develop a viable alternative for sustainable agriculture that can produce food on a global scale. This cannot be achieved in isolation, which is why we have partnered with IICA in the Living Soils of the Americas program,” he stated.
 
For her part, farmer Elvia Monzón, a member of a coffee growing cooperative in Guatemala, said that in her view, regenerative agriculture is “carrying out actions in favor of our soils, which have given us life and food and to which we have done so much damage.”
 
“My priority – she added – are my children and my grandchildren. I want to leave them healthy soils with which they can have long-term production. It is worth giving back to our soils what they have given us and will continue to give us if we take proper care of them.”
 
The Director General of IICA highlighted the role of innovation for an agriculture that must necessarily be more regenerative, as the world today is demanding more food, produced with less environmental impact.
 
“Regeneration – said Manuel Otero – is the act of repairing something that is damaged and returning it to its original state. In agriculture, it refers to the adoption of good practices, which are already being carried out in our region, such as no-till farming, the use of cover crops and the widespread use of agrosilvopastoral systems. We are on the right path and we must invest more.”
 
Otero assured that IICA is committed to strengthening the transformation of agriculture in the Americas to achieve greater sustainability. “Our hemisphere – he claimed – is the guarantor of food security and global environmental sustainability, which is why the conservation and recovery of soils, under the One Health approach, is a priority.”
 
Francisco Mello, head of the Center for Knowledge Management and Horizontal Cooperation and technical coordinator of the Living Soils of the Americas initiative, also participated on behalf of the Institute.
 
“Through the Living Soils initiative, we gather scientific evidence to support the main agricultural practices that contribute to carbon sequestration in the soil, by setting reference points that will benefit all countries of the Americas in the formulation of public policies,” Mello said. 

More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int