Mobilise your allies beneath the soil surface!

The return on investment for conventional farms has declined by an average of 1,4% per year in real terms since 1986. But every farmer has a microbe army that can fight back against this trend. Susan Marais found out more at a recent regenerative conservation agriculture farmers' day in Mpumalanga.

- Susan Marais

Soil should be alive at all times, even during periods of frost in winter. This, according to researchers, is the answer to soil health.In fact, farmers and scientists recently reaffirmed that soil microbes can directly or indirectly help farmers combat the biggest issues they face today. These include environmental changes, biodiversity loss, declining soil health, rising production costs, declining profitability, rising debt, and the subsequent risk of losing one’s land due to a loan default.

This was the not-so-hidden message that was conveyed during a farmers’ day hosted by the Highveld Regenerative Conservation Agriculture Study Group in Kinross in collaboration with Asset Research. The latter is a group of scientists focusing on the development of capacity within the field of environmental and natural resource economics, as well as ecological restoration.

Asset Research economist Mary Maluleke, who spoke at the event, said that there was a growing need amongst farmers to find a proper adaptation and mitigation solution to climatic factors.

“Farmers need to hedge themselves against financial stress and ensure that their farming model will be viable over the long term. The solution to this lies in the selection of an appropriate farming system.”

According to her, farmers’ three main options are conventional tillage, no-tillage, and regenerative conservation agriculture. The third option:

• Reduces risk and builds more resilience;