mammoth ag

Regenerative Agriculture: Practical or Not?

Regenerative agriculture has gained new and significant popularity in recent years, and for good reasons. This thrilling approach aims to produce nutritious food while healing the planet by restoring soil health and capturing atmospheric carbon. The promise of regenerative agriculture allows us to reimagine row crops, as fields buzzing with life, where clever farmers use wildly holistic approaches to boost biodiversity. Is it true — could this revolutionary approach really convert depleted soil into supercharged sponges of life?

Beyond the surrealistic imagery, actual studies have convincingly shown that regenerative agriculture practices can effectively increase crop yields by 20%, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One would think regen represents a clear win for farmers… but this does not seem to be the case, as most farmers strongly believe that regenerative agriculture is NOT PRACTICAL for their operations. The fact is, regenerative agriculture is extremely difficult to implement in real world applications, and for this main reason, greater than 90% of all commercial agriculture still relies heavily on conventional synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. A case study in California found regenerative almond farms increased plant biomass but had comparable nut yields (Fenster et al., 2021).

Q: Aren’t synthetic fertilizers and pesticides bad for the environment? That is at least what they taught us in school?!

Which practice is better?

This leads us to explore the options. Regenerative agriculture systems represent a holistic, biologically active approach that restores and enhances soil systems. Regenerative agriculture relies heavily on utilizing living organisms (e.g., microbes, fungi, plants) to cycle nutrients and improve soil structure, which fosters biodiversity and long-term sustainability. Regenerative farming aims to sequester carbon, enhancing soil fertility while eliminating the use of conventional synthetic fertilizer inputs. While synthetic management often degrades soil over time, regenerative systems replenish soil organic carbon, enabling an acre to hold 25,000 more gallons of water — in as few as three to ten years after converting. A case study in California showed no-tillage and cover crops improved soil health indicators (Mitchell et al., 2024).

However, most farmers find regenerative agriculture impractical, because they cannot wait three to ten years for results. Switching a farm from conventional methods to regenerative agriculture is challenging and involves many operational and economic obstacles. Lastly, regenerative agriculture requires more time and knowledge to implement effectively and is less predictable than conventional synthetic systems in the short term. No wonder regenerative agriculture is not a more widespread practice!

Conversely, conventional synthetic programs are relatively simple to implement and ideal for control and predictability, efficiently delivering precise inputs tailored to the plant’s specific needs, while remaining free of contaminants or microbes. This approach (absent of living biological materials) certainly reduces variables, which is optimal for any controlled environmental conditions.

Which practice is better — who’s to say? There are clear trade-offs between conventional synthetic programs vs regenerative agriculture. Comparing the two would be like comparing the difference between chugging energy drinks every day versus eating balanced meals. One provides a temporary jolt, and the other provides long-term nourishment. The practices represent different objectives: Synthetic leans toward goals focused on quantity and immediacy; Regenerative leans toward goals focused on enhancement and quality.

The table below outlines some key differences between synthetic and regenerative practices:

	Synthetic	Regenerative
Approach	Reductionist	Systemic
Application	Short Term	Long Term
Sustainability	Degradative	Enhancement
Complexity	Low	High
Difficulty Level	Simple	Difficult

A hybrid approach

Building on these insights, bridging the gap between these two vastly different management practices may allow farmers to maximize the strengths of both approaches: synthetic’s immediate nutrient availability to maximize yields, paired with regenerative’s improved soil health, nutrient diversity, and plant quality enhancements. Like integrated pest management (IPM) approaches, this hybrid approach, often called “integrated nutrient management” (INM) or “smart agriculture,” leverages these two management practices with tools like precision technologies, microbial inoculations, and organic amendments to achieve high yields and quality enhancements.
Here are 5 Strategies that farmers can easily implement as part of an integrated nutrient management program:

Precision Agriculture Technology

The use of soil and environmental sensors, along with variable-rate applicators to target synthetic inputs only where needed, paired with regenerative practices is a non-negotiable imperative to optimize and maximize growing conditions. Precision informed environmental and fertigation control allows for optimizing plant growth conditions. In outdoor applications, precision fertigation limits synthetic overuse, preserving soil structure and function, and preventing waste. As the old saying goes, “you can manage what you can measure, so measure what matters.”

Inoculate with Beneficial Microbes

Simply adding beneficial microbial inoculants to synthetic-fertilized fields to mimic regenerative microbial activity. Microbes enhance nutrient efficiency—which allows the plant to naturally absorb more nutrients from the fertigation and can eliminate the risk of nutrient lockout in the event of shifts in pH levels or when there is an accumulation of salts and other nutrients. Applying synthetics along with organic inputs early in the growing season is highly effective. This allows farmers to taper off synthetic applications later in the growing season as microbes take over to support plants.

Precision Synthetic Use with Organic Amendments

Using synthetic fertilizer doses alongside organic inputs to meet immediate crop needs while feeding soil microbes. This strategy provides the plant with a quick N-P-K pulse, which organics incorporated with microbial inoculants will serve to naturally stimulate and maximize plant growth and development (via nutrient cycling, enzyme production and biochemical signaling) continuously throughout the plant growth cycle. In outdoor growing applications specifically, this strategy can lead to cutting future fertilizer needs by 1–20% in as few as three years.

Organic Buffering

Synthetic stress happens in soil and soilless media. This unwanted effect can be buffered using biochar and microbiology, by simply mixing biochar and adding microbial inoculants into synthetic systems. This strategy functions to mitigate high salinity and pH swings. This works quite simply, because biochar absorbs excess positive ions and reduce toxicity by up to 30%; while microbes can mitigate toxicity by absorbing excess ions as well as processing synthetic residues.

Cover Crops with Low-Dose Synthetics

In outdoor and living soil bed applications planting cover crops (e.g., clover) between cash crops, while using minimal synthetic N can kickstart soil fertility. This work because cover crops build soil (carbon) and feed microbes. Once the soil microbes get to critical mass, they support the nutrient cycling for plant uptake. Applying low-dose synthetics early correct for any deficiencies. In outdoor settings, this strategy has been proven to match synthetic yields and boost plant nutrition and forage quality, while reducing farmers’ input costs. Note: cover crop implementation is less common for indoor applications because cover crops can also function as a habitat or vector for pests, thus introducing unwanted uncertainties and risk.

In Conclusion

Although conventional and regenerative agriculture management programs take vastly different approaches, there may be synergies worth exploring by utilizing the strengths between the two practices. While synthetic fertilizer is critical to efficiently deliver soluble nutrients to plants, bridging the gap with regenerative practices can offer natural quality enhancements. Ultimately, developing a balanced cultivation program requires mastering timing, tools, and teamwork. An integrated nutrient management system can utilize microbial inoculants to amplify the conventional synthetic efficiencies beyond raw input —boosting trace element and macronutrient availability, increasing secondary metabolite production (e.g., flavonoids), and enhancing fiber quality. Often, without soil microbes (biology) and organic carbon, these quality enhancements are suboptimized. This calls for a balanced approach. Embrace microbes for growth. I hope this article helps you bridge the gaps in exploring the benefits of a quality – focused agriculture management program for your operation.lture has gained new and significant popularity in recent years, and for good reasons. This thrilling approach aims to produce nutritious food while healing the planet by restoring soil health and capturing atmospheric carbon. The promise of regenerative agriculture allows us to reimagine row crops, as fields buzzing with life, where clever farmers use wildly holistic approaches to boost biodiversity. Is it true — could this revolutionary approach really convert depleted soil into supercharged sponges of life?