A synthesis of more than three decades of interdisciplinary research and practice, Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: An Evidence-based Guide to Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change, provides evidence-based solutions to some of the world’s most pressing crises in global ecology, agriculture and public health.
Featuring the work of Navdanya, an organization founded by Dr. Vandana Shiva that promotes agroecology, seed freedom, and a vision of Earth Democracy that seeks justice for the Earth and all living beings, this work serves as a guidebook for agriculture scientists, policy makers, environmentalists and every individual who cares about their own health as well as the vitality of the planet.
Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture, provides a detailed analysis of the multiple planetary dilemmas we face due to chemical and industrial agriculture, including land degradation, water depletion, biodiversity erosion, climate change, agrarian crises, and health crises while also focusing on practical and evidence-based solutions.
Those solutions include methods of using biodiversity-based organic farming to regenerate soil, conserve water, increase climate change resilience, and ensure food security in rural populations. As editor, Dr. Shiva takes an organized approach to these wide-ranging topics and provides practical knowledge that can inform the future of agriculture and sustainable food systems. With detailed scientific evidence, Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture shows how an ecological agriculture based on working with nature can regenerate the planet, the rural economy and our health.
Table of Content
Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture
Foreword.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
SECTION 1
Introduction.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1 Multiple Crises in Agricultural Systems and the Urgent Need
for a Paradigm Change.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Degradation of the Environment, Public Health,
and Rural Economies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 A Biodiversity-Based Approach to Farming: Agroecology
and Regenerative Organic Agriculture.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4 The Principles of Agroecology.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.5 The Environmental Benefits of Organic Farming.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
SECTION 1
Seeds of Biodiversity.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.1 Seed: The Source of Life in Abundance and Renewal.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.2 Farmers: the First Link in Plant Breeding.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2.3 Ex-situ and In-situ Methods.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.4 The Limitations of Gene Banks.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2.5 Navdanya: A Catalyst for Decentralized Seed Conservation.. . . . . . . . . . . . 74
2.6 The Importance of Nutrition.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
SECTION 3
Soil & Water.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.1 Understanding and Maintaining Soil Health.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.2 Indicators of Soil Health and Ratio of Fungal to Bacterial Biomass.. . . 138
3.3 Biodiverse Organic Farming to Conserve and Regenerate Water.. . . . . . 143
SECTION 4
Climate Change Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
4.1 The Climate Crisis: Transgressing Planetary Boundaries
and Disrupting Ecological Cycles.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
4.2 Regenerating the Living Carbon Cycle.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
4.3 Navdanya Climate Change Adaptation Study.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
4.4 The Carbon Wheel.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
4.5 Fossil Fuel Based Synthetic Fertilizers.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
4.6 Biodiversity-Based Organic Farming for the Mitigation
and Adaption of Climate Change.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
4.7 Agrobiodiversity, Climate Resilience, and Sustainability.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
4.8 Biodiversity: A Climate Solution.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
SECTION 5
Biodiversity for Pest Control: Managing Pests
without Pesticides.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
5.1 Insect Reproduction, Metamorphosis, and Ecology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
5.2 Recognizing the Role of Natural Enemies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.3 Pesticide Resistance.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
5.4 Predators Occurring in the Field.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
5.5 Non-Chemical Methods of Pest Control.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
5.6 The Importance of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
5.7 Indigenous Methods of Vrikshayurveda (Pest Control).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
5.8 Traditional Techniques for Prevention of Pest Attack.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
5.9 Biopesticides.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
5.10 Seed Treatments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
5.11 Bird Attractant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
5.12 Treatment of Stored Grains.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
5.13 Crop Disease Management.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
5.14 Protecting Seeds From Insects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
5.15 Diversity of Insects and Arthropods at the Navdanya Farm.. . . . . . . . . . 233
5.16 Eco Functional Intensification (EFI).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
5.17 Insectaries: Beneficial Insects and Their Host Plants.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
SECTION 6
Food, Nutrition, & Health.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
6.1 Seeds of Hope to Address Hunger and Malnutrition:
Health Per Acre.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
6.2 Yield is Not Output: The Myth of More Food.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
6.3 Changing the Metric From Yield Per Acre to Nutrition Per Acre.. . . . . 262
6.4 Towards a Biodiversity-Based Productivity Framework.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
6.5 The Ayurvedic Approach to Health.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
6.6 Agricultural Chemicals in the Environment.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
6.7 Environmental Health.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
6.8 Inadequacy of Toxicology Models.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
6.9 Epidemiology and Scientific Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
SECTION 7
Farmer’s Livelihoods & Rural Economies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
7.1 Farmer Livelihood as the Foundation of our Food Systems.. . . . . . . . . . . . 282
7.2 The Impacts of Food Systems Globalization.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
7.3 Alternative Models of Economics and Sustainability.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
References.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
About the author
Dr. Vandana Shiva is an author, physicist, ecologist and advocate of biodiversity conservation and protection of farmers’ and women’s rights. Her pioneering work around food sovereignty, traditional agriculture, and women’s rights created fundamental cultural shifts in how the world views these issues. Along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader, and Jeremy Rifkin, Dr. Shiva is a leader and board member of the International Forum on Globalization and a prominent figure of the global solidarity movement known as the alter-globalization movement. Dr. Shiva founded Navdanya, an organization that promotes agroecology, seed freedom, and a vision of Earth Democracy, seeking justice for the Earth and all living beings. She has authored more than 20 books including Reclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth (Synergetic Press, 2020), Philanthrocapitalism & The Erosion of Democracy: A Global Citizens’ Report on the Corporate Control of Technology, Health, and Agriculture (Synergetic Press, 2022) and Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change (Synergetic Press, 2022). Dr. Shiva is a member of the scientific committee of the Fundacion IDEAS, Spain’s Socialist Party’s think tank and the International Organization for a Participatory Society. She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993, an honor known as an "Alternative Nobel Prize". She has received numerous other awards and honors for her work including the “Save the World” award in 2009 and the Sydney Peace Prize in 2010. Dr. Shiva’s life and work is the subject of the award-winning 2021 documentary, “Seeds of Vandana Shiva.”
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