Regenerative agriculture is a system of farming that seeks to rehabilitate and enhance the entire ecosystem of the farm by placing a heavy premium on soil health, water management and fertiliser use. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an economic development arm of the African and other international organisations in Africa, is using regenerative agriculture to tackle desertification in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. DANIEL ESSIET reports.
It took studies undertaken by the Department of Agricultural Science and Technology, Environmental Food and Forestry, School of Agriculture of the University of Florence, Italy, to show that Regenerative Agriculture (RA), which is a system of farming that places a heavy premium on soil health, water management and fertiliser use etc is perhaps, the way to go to give agriculture its much-needed boost.
According to the result of the studies, foods grown under regenerative practices contained, on the average, more magnesium, calcium, potassium and zinc and more vitamins. Analysts also said crops grown in regenerative farms were lower in elements broadly detrimental to human health, including sodium, cadmium and nickel, compared with those grown conventionally.
Essentially, RA aims at positive environmental impact on the farm, including damage to soil health, over-exploitation of water resources, and high chemical residue levels in food. Currently, more than 15 million smallholder farmers across the developing world using RA practices are said to have declared impressive benefits.
This is why experts in the agric sector are now canvassing for the wider adoption of regenerative approaches to farming. For instance, the President, Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria (FACAN), Dr. Victor Iyama, sees RA as “a promising and reassuring choice,” because it emphasises the need to improve the environment and assist agribusinesses generate more value for food exports.
Dr. Iyama, while pointing out that RA focuses on issues related to agro exports growth, expressed hope that farmers will embrace it, as food importers in the US and Europe are increasing the demand for premium produce cultivated and processed under natural condition without chemical pesticides.
While noting that numerous factors affect healthiness of foods including soil health and fertiliser application which are relevant to RA, Dr. Iyama said RA will help producers achieve commercial success of exports with the higher prices that farmers would get for their produce overseas.
Dr. Iyama’s words: “In the days of organic farming, people were healthier than now; yet we make more money employing more chemicals. But we cause more damages to consumers’ health. The hazard is not only on those who eat it, but those spreading the chemicals on the crops.
“It is a tedious journey that we are embarking on. Luckily there are organic herbicides and spreaders. Organic farming is a little more challenging because it is just starting. After a while, there will be mass production of organic fertiliser. If you don’t want to buy them you can plant under real regenerative agricultural conditions. You don’t have to do anything to the ground. You allow the crops grow under a natural condition. You just water it at the approximate time.”
Indeed, interest in RA has continued to gain traction, with principles that promote soil health. Bio-diversity, and protect the environment. Iyama, however, posited that Nigerian farmers were interested in a regenerative approach that is profitable and brings the best returns.
Following this, FACAN has become a strategic partner to organic producers’ organisations that use natural soil additives to replace the use of synthetic and chemical fertiliser inputs. It has teamed up with groups that support transformative measures to reduce hunger and malnutrition through agriculture. Several organisations are also said to have come into the picture as RA drive healthy living agriculture.
For instance, Dantata Foods and Allied Products Company Limited (Nigeria) recently signed a partnership deal with UK–based innovative and agric-technology firm Regen FARM Limited and the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office of the British Government, under its agricultural sector intervention (LINKS Project) on Regenerative Agriculture in Nigeria.
The tripartite partnership was aimed at increasing quality food production, enhancing export opportunities for Nigeria’s agricultural commodities and improving the soil fertility, nutrients content and organic matter.
Under the arrangement, over 200, 000 farmers are to be engaged on a long-term basis across a number of Nigerian states, which includes Kano, Cross River, Jigawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Katsina, Kebbi, Benue, Niger and Plateau.
With a financing commitment from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the Prime Anchor Borrowers Programme, the consortium of private sector and government bodies are rolling out an innovative approach to support smallholder farmers on the new techniques of RA practices.
Besides, the founder of LEAP Africa, Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, and other experts are on the campaign for high-yielding, resilient, and adaptive practices (HYRAP) that constitute an African approach to climate-smart agriculture.
For them, the solution lies in HYRAP because the approach must contribute to feeding people and improving livelihoods in food systems. Their position is that the adoption of HYRAP has the potential to improve the livelihoods and resilience of farmers, processors, and consumers.
The other campaigners include former Botswana Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, Bogolo Kenewendo, and Africa Director & Special Advisor for UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, Zoë Karl-Waithaka.
Also, Green World Ventures (GWV) has established a regenerative food industry in Nigeria, based on cultivation and processing of moringa oleifera, a fast-growing drought-tolerant and high-protein tree-crop.
GWV is cultivating and exporting high-protein moringa leaf-powder as a bulk ingredient. Ancillary products such as moringa seed oil and animal fodder will be added to an integrated supply chain whose operations aim to help restore millions of hectares in Africa to ecologically balanced productivity and increasing CO2-absorbing soil organic matter.
Other aims include enhancing local food security and rural income; training more people up the value chain; supporting community-based bio-diverse perennial agriculture; creating climate change resilience, and at scale, and mitigation through carbon sequestration in soil organic matter.
According to a report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), harnessing RA to repair Africa’s degraded lands could be worth $70 billion to farmers.
The report, which was accessed by The Nation, also conservatively estimated that regenerative practices could increase yields by 13 per cent by 2040, while also creating five million new full-time jobs in farming, processing and supportive industries.
The Nation also learnt that RA has put several organisations at the forefront of climate related agriculture. For instance, Nestle International has set the goal that 50 per cent?or 14 million tonnes–of ingredients will come from regenerative farming by 2030.
Nestle is also looking to introduce premiums to incentivize farmers. The company works with over 600, 000 farmers around the world to move them from conventional agriculture to regenerative agriculture. Last year, Nestle announced its intention to invest N535 billion in RA food systems.
The food company currently operates a large investment in 22 countries including Nigeria with its country headquarters in Ilupeju, Lagos State, and its factories sited in Agbara and Sagamu interchange on Lagos-Ibadan road in Ogun State. Its chairman, Paul Bulcke, said the company will be investing 1.2 billion in Swiss Francs over the next five years.
The effort, Mr. Bulcke noted, will spark RA across the company’s supply chain, using three primary levers to help farmers adopt regenerative practices. He said the step was taken as part of Nestlé’s contribution to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, as well as follow the recent report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shows the climate crisis is intensifying.
Mr. Bulcke stated: “We know that RA plays a critical role in improving soil health, restoring water cycles and increasing biodiversity for the long term. These outcomes form the foundation of sustainable food production and crucially, also contribute to achieving our ambitious climate targets.”
The business case for regenerative land use
According to analysts, restoring just 350 million hectares of degraded land could, by 2030, remove greenhouse gases roughly equal to half the world’s annual emissions from the atmosphere. Also, restoring land can earn an extra $1.4 trillion in agricultural production every year.
Accordingly, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an economic development arm of the African Union, now transformed into African Union Development Agency (AUDA), has been driving the campaign to restore millions of acres of degraded land across Africa.
AUDA-NEPAD manages the African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR100) initiative, which responds to the African Union (AU’s) mandate to bring 100 million hectares of degraded land into restoration by 2030. The initiative directly contributes to the SDGs and the Paris climate agreement.
It builds on the experience and progress achieved through the TerrAfrica Partnership and related landscape restoration efforts. AFR100 also leverages strong partnerships with regional economic communities, the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), and the Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR).
Nigeria is part of 32 states in Africa that have committed to restoring more than 84 million hectares (over 200 million acres) of degraded lands as part of AFR100. Close to $1.5 billion in financial commitments have been made to AFR100 initiatives, for instance.
The African Development Bank, Government of Germany, Global Environment Facility, Bezos Earth Fund, the Global EverGreening Alliance, and Green Climate Fund responded, announcing their plan to significantly invest in land restoration by 2026 and have called on their peers to join them in mobilizing $2 billion in investable capital by November this year.
To date, Nigeria has committed 4.0 million hectares. Since signing onto the AFR100 Initiative and the Bonn Challenge one year ago, Nigeria has already brought an additional 900 hectares of land into restoration.
The Federal Government also recognized that collaboration between stakeholders could help create a befitting environment for information exchange that will lead to successful implementation through its various engagements.
Recently, the Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, at the formal inauguration of the AFR100 National Stakeholders Platform on Degraded Forest and Landscape Restoration in Nigeria, held in Abuja the Nation’s capital noted: “AFR100 would enhance food security, increase climate change resilience and mitigation as well as combat rural poverty.”
Ikeazor also said: “This will not only contribute to the UN decade on ecosystem restoration but also deliver on the objectivities of the three global multilateral environmental agreements, that is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, (UNCBD).”
According to the Minister, landscape restoration was not limited to planting trees, it is about restoring the whole landscape and it involves several sectors such as agriculture, livestock, forest, and the environment, town planning and housing, water and sanitation, energy, tourism, and land use planning.
She further said the platform would serve as a framework for the exchange of experience, sharing of results and dissemination of information on the restoration of forest and degraded landscapes in Nigeria to track and monitor progress thereby subscribing to the Bonn challenge barometer.
Ikeazor stressed that collective commitment towards sustainable land management practices would help conserve and restore the Nigerian environment and make the country less vulnerable to climate change.
Joining the fray
Yobe State has commenced a campaign to help meet the country’s AFR100 goal of restoring four million hectares. Led by the State Governor, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, there is a tremendous deforestation campaign, including planting three million trees.
The Governor launched a five-year Climate Change Action project in which the government is raising and planting 40 million trees across 100,000 hectares. About 25,000 farmers and their families will benefit from the programme and ensure that the trees they plant grow strong and healthy. So far, five nurseries have been established and three million seedlings raised.
