Regenerative Agriculture
“In order for Agriculture to be sustainable, environmentally and financially, we have to move away from chemical inputs and regenerate the soil.”
Dr Johann Strauss, PhD Agriculture Univ of Stellenbosch. Agronomist Western Cape Dept of Agriculture.
What is Regenerative Agriculture?
ReStore Natural Fertiliser works on the principles of Regenerative Agriculture that go back to before the time of chemicals, when the sun was the only source of energy, monoculture didn’t exist, and the carbon and water cycles were still intact.
Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. Not only are farmers turning their financial positions around by regenerating the soil and restoring the natural ecosystems in the environment, but they are also positively impacting our health and well-being – a win-win system!
Using Regenerative Principles
The technique of using carbon to improve the fertility of soils originated in the Amazon basin at least 2 500 years ago. The indigenous people of the region made charcoal and worked it into small plots of land that remain highly fertile until today, even with little or no application of fertilisers.
Working WITH
Nature
ReStore Regenerative Fertiliser uses these ancient principles that work with, rather than against, natural systems. ReStore permanently stores biochar in the ground in a positive way by making it carbon negative. It acts as a haven for beneficial soil microbes. This can be used to enhance soil quality even in the poorest of soils, without using dangerous and expensive chemical fertilisers.
Biochar is about forming carbon loops, rather than a series of carbon emissions that take carbon from the soil into the sky – as with modern fertilisers. Carbon loops rebuild the soil by stimulating the microbiology and fixing the water cycle.
When mixed with the soil, the biochar in ReStore has the double impact of permanently sequestering large amounts of CO2 and improving soil quality. It increases yields and profitability per square meter. The habitual use of ReStore leads to a positive cycle of increased economic prosperity from year to year, restoring land resources previously considered as unproductive.
ReStore Regenerative Fertiliser maximises the photosynthetic potential of soil by capturing more carbon. This has the greatest potential for cooling the planet, as photosynthesis both draws down carbon and acts as nature’s air-conditioner by cooling the environment through transpiration (the process of water movement).
A Unique Blend
ReStore consists of a unique blend of biochar and free-range chicken litter – for optimal effect. Biochar soil enhancement basically lasts forever, while holding onto nutrients and releasing it over time. This decreases the need for repeat applications of fertilizer.
“But just a little bit of biochar does wonderful things to the soil, and it really shines when you add organic fertiliser.”
Miles R.Silman
Professor of Biology, Wake Forest University’s Centre for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA)
What is Biochar?
whose properties are proven to enhance the soil structure including:
- Stored carbon in a long term stable sink
- Regenerating and stabilizing soil structures whilst increasing fertility and nutrient retention more than conventional soil organic matter
- ReStore the microbiome in your soil by increasing biological activity and diversity, creating conditions known as a “microbial reef”
- Increased arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
- Increased soil aggregation due to increased fungal hyphae
- Increased Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), i.e. the ability to hold onto and transfer nutrient cations such as ammonium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
- Absorption of ammonium phosphates and calcium ions reduces phosphate runoff into water ways and nitrogen leaching into groundwater
- Stimulated symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes
- Reduced soil acidity raises the soil pH
- Reduced aluminum toxicity
- Increased soil microbial respiration
- Suppressed methane emission and reduced nitrous oxide emission (estimate 50%)
Why Chicken Litter?
Scientific studies have found that when biochar is combined with organic fertiliser, such as chicken manure, the growth in height and diameter of tree seedlings significantly improved; while also increasing the number of leaves the seedlings developed.
Correctly prepared chicken manure is the best kind of fertiliser to use because of the optimal balance of its nutrient content. Chicken fertiliser is very high in nitrogen and contains a good amount of potassium and phosphorus (NPK).