Certificate of Regenerative Agriculture

Unit 1 – Scope and Nature of Regenerative Agriculture

• Environmental impacts of traditional agriculture
• Pollution – land and water
• Pesticide use
• Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)
• Carbon dioxide
• Decreased biodiversity
• Why regenerative agriculture matters
• Sustainable agriculture vs. regenerative agriculture
• Principles of regenerative agriculture (summary)
  • Leave the soil alone
  • Protect the soil
  • Include perennials and other living roots in the soil
  • Increase the diversity of species in the land and enterprise
  • Incorporate grazing animals
  • Focus on progress
• Corporate initiatives

Unit 2 – Functional and Integrative Level Systems

• Functional regenerative agriculture
• Improving soil health
• Soil microbiome and soil health
• Regeneration practices
• Cover crops
• Zero tilling
• Rotating crops
• Organic composts
• Synthetic inputs
• Carbon sequestration
• Organic carbon
• Integrative regenerative agriculture
• Design and redesign
• Permaculture ideas embedded in a system of regeneration
• Energy flow
• Wildlife habitat considerations
• Increasing biodiversity – above and below ground
• Increase biodiversity below ground
• Increasing biodiversity above ground

Unit 3 – Systemic and Evolutionary Level Systems

• Systemic level
• Case study: falcon glen humans in the ecosystem
• Humans in the ecosystem
• Antifragility concept
• Adaptive and agile
• Creating a microclimate
• Capital inputs
• Evolutionary level
• Storying land
• Supply chains/ supply webs
• Supply webs and big agriculture
• Defining a bioregion
• Defining an agroecosystem
• Connect the land to its larger agroecosystem and bioregion

Unit 4 – System Inputs: Climate, Topography and Nutrition

• Climate
• Pressure, temperature & rainfall
• Soils and climate
• Topography
• Soils and slopes
• Broad-ranging topography
• Soils and parent material
• Soil nutrition
• Nitrogen
• The nitrogen cycle
• Forms of nitrogen
• Nitrogen fixation
• Ammonification
• Nitrification
• Phosphorus
• Potassium
• Fertilisers
• Synthetic fertilisers
• Organic fertilisers
• Organic materials
• Dead animals
• Manure
• Garbage
• Hay or straw
• Paper
• Carbon
• Biochar
• Mineralisation
• Chemoautotrophic organisms

Unit 5 – Soils and Soil Regeneration

• Introduction to soils
• Soil types
• Soil classification
• Soil horizons
• Organic matter
• Soil adsorption/desorption
• Soil adsorption
• Soil desorption
• Introduction to soil health
• What does healthy soil look like?
• Presence of organic matter
• Facilitate water resilience(water holding capacity)
• Permeability
• Balance and diversity: the microbiome
• Monocultures and the threat to soil & crop health
• Approaches to regenerate soil & improve health
• Limited disturbance
• No or low tillage farming practices
• Carbon retention

Unit 6 – Livestock and Grazing Management

• Integrating livestock
• Habitat restoration (and ways to avoid overgrazing)
• Assisting carbon sequestration through grazing and increasing photosynthesis
• Pest control (e.g. Use of chickens)
• Reduced variable and machinery costs
• Reducing impacts
• Effects of regenerative grazing on biodiversity
• Challenges
• Compaction
• Aquaculture
• Aquaculture farms and markets
• Regenerative grazing management
• Rotational grazing
• Orchard grazing
• Complementary grazing

Unit 7 – Agroforestry and Silvopasture

• Agroforestry
• Incorporating perennials and trees
• Benefits of agroforestry
• Types of agroforestry
• Value of trees in agriculture
• Carbon sinks
• Carbon credits
• Agroforestry and regenerative agriculture
• The benefits of trees
  • Erosion control
  • Lowering water tables
  • Windbreaks
  • Timber
  • Firewood
  • Fodder
  • Honey production
  • Wildlife habitats
  • Firebreaks
  • Improving soils
• Challenges of agroforestry in regenerative agriculture
• Specific criteria must be recognised
• Financial considerations

Unit 8 -System Outputs: Social and Economic Factors

• Sustainability and maintenance
• Potential outcomes of regenerative agriculture
• Physical outcomes
• Increase crop health and resilience
• Create a circular system and reduce waste
• Carbon sequestration
• How carbon sequestration works
• Improve social & economic wellbeing of communities
• Improve food nutritional quality and human health
• Improve food access and food security
• Improvements food safety
• Increase farm profitability (lower costs of labour & resources)
• Socio-economic conditions influencing adoption of agroforestry (AF) practices
• Carbonomics

Unit 9 – Whole Farm Planning and Implementation

• Implementation of a regenerative agriculture system
• Assessment of natural components
• Analysis and planning
• Topsoil
• Water
• Determining the business opportunities
• Developing a business case
• Cash flow
• High cash flow crops
• Long-term crops
• Cash flow concerns
• Marketing direct to the consumer
• Organic vs non-organic
• Support and funding
• Goal setting and planning
• Introducing and monitoring change & project management
• The benefits of sustainable change
• What factors impact the sustainability of the farm goals?
• Project management in regenerative agriculture

Unit 10 – PBL Project