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Regenerative Agriculture in Ireland

What is Regenerative Agriculture? 

While there is no strict definition, Regenerative Agriculture is an umbrella-term for sustainable farming methods that focus on: 

  • Restoring soil fertility. 
  • Increasing biodiversity. 
  • Sequestering and reducing emissions. 
  • Improving nutrient cycling in the soil. 
  • Animal welfare. 
  • Increasing water quality and availability.  

(Schreefel et al., 2020)

Strip Tilled Land from Andrew Bergin’s farm, Co Kildare

This style of farming integrates plants and animals, uses no chemical inputs, and avoids practices that cause long-term damage to soil, such as excessive tillage.  Practices that involve “farming for nature” are encouraged, such as hedgerow preservation, field margins, winter stubble, cover crops, agroforestry, and flowering belts

Happy cows foraging in the scrubland on John McHugh’s farm.

Regenerative Agriculture is site-specific, and farmers can implement the practices in the ways which they feel most suit their land, which can be a very empowering process. Many people say that Regenerative Agriculture mimics ‘the old way’ of farming, as it is a less intrusive and less intensive way of farming.

What is SECAD’s Involvement?

SECAD Partnership has joined 7 other rural development stakeholder groups across Europe to create an educational project entitled “REGINA”, which stands for: ‘Regenerative agriculture. An innovative approach towards mitigation of climate change through multi-tier learning.’ This project has received funding from Erasmus+ and aims to create a university module for third-level students, and an online learning platform for farmers.

Read about Irish Farmers Using Regenerative Agriculture practices

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing stories from farmers who are using regenerative agriculture practices in their farming. To read, click on the name:

Regenerative Agriculture in Ireland Webinar

On Tuesday, 11th July 2023, we held an evening of stories and discussion about 7 different farms across Ireland who are engaging with Regenerative Agriculture & other sustainable farming practices.

The webinar was recorded and is available for viewing here.

Regenerative Agriculture Irish National Workshop

As part of the REGINA project, SECAD hosted a very successful half-day workshop in the Midleton Park Hotel on Thursday, 4th April 2024. The workshop offered a unique opportunity for researchers, farmers, educators and support agencies to network, learn and discuss Regenerative Agriculture along with our REGINA Erasmus+ European partners from Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and Greece.

Recordings of the panel presentations can be found here.

Regenerative Agriculture International Webinar

On Monday, 30th September 2024 we hosted a webinar which showcased the new online learning platform and best practice library of resources on Regenerative Agriculture.

A recording of the webinar can be accessed here.

Information:

This project is funded through the European Erasmus+ Project. For more information:

Cover Image
Happy cows on a multi-species pasture on Mervyn Auchmuty’s farm, County Roscommon

References:

  • Rhodes, C.J., 2017. The imperative for regenerative agriculture. Science progress, 100(1), pp.80-129.
  • Schreefel, L., Schulte, R.P.O., De Boer, I.J.M., Schrijver, A.P. and Van Zanten, H.H.E., 2020. Regenerative agriculture–the soil is the base. Global Food Security, 26, p.100404.