Sustainability Certification Organization Explores Regenerative Agriculture Journey with TraceX Solutions

Regenerative practices are gaining popularity as an effective solution to achieving sustainable development goals. These practices involve working with natural ecosystems to rebuild and restore the environment. Regenerative agriculture takes advantage of soil as a carbon sink, improves soil quality, and produces more nutritious food in ways that make it not only better for the consumers but also the producers. 

Regenerative agriculture aims to put more into the environment and society than it takes out 

The primary goal of regenerative agriculture is to regenerate degraded land and soil, which in turn can lead to increased profitability and livelihood for farmers. Through the use of sustainable interventions, barren land can be transformed into fertile and cultivable land. This not only benefits the environment by restoring soil health, reducing erosion and improving water retention, it also enhances biodiversity and benefits farmers by increasing yields and profitability. 

About the Organization 

The conversion of land used for conventional farming alone threatens 86% of species at the risk of extinction and accounting for 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

This organization feels that companies have a unique opportunity to lead the transformation to regenerative agriculture by supporting farmers who adopt these practices. This organization is an international not-for-profit organization that has over years worked to make agriculture more sustainable by partnering with farmers and forest communities around the world to use methods that protect the land as well as their livelihoods. 

This Organization considers Sustainability to be a Journey and Regeneration as the Goal 

 Why transit to Regenerative Agriculture? 

• Conventional farming practices have resulted in soil degradation and caused a threat to global food security. 
• Heavy use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides have depleted soil fertility and harmed soil organisms leading to reduced crop yields. 
• The excessive use of water for irrigation has led to depletion of groundwater resources and reduced availability of other uses. 
• Usage of pesticides and herbicides have been linked to decline of pollinators and insects which play an important role in maintain biodiversity. 
• Monoculture farming results in increased susceptibility to pests and diseases impacting local economies. 

These challenges have led to a growing need for regenerative practices that prioritize health of soil, water, biodiversity and farmer livelihoods. 

Regenerative Solutions 

Requirement 

The organization looks to undertake regenerative agriculture around 30 acres of land in Odulupalli village of Kadri mandal in Andhra Pradesh. It plans to undertake various interventions so that farmers generate enough income from this land and continue sustainable agriculture further. It plans to capture the KPIs in these sustainability practices and monitor and report the impact so as to scale up the model. 

Implementation 

The implementation partner involved oversees the various field level activities related to farmer mobilization, farm activities and training. 

Technology Solutions 

TraceX’s blockchain powered traceability solutions provides the farm level digitization to capture the various practices and the KPIs to realize the sustainability objectives. This encompasses Baselining of 4 major parameters viz. Soil, Water, Biodiversity and Farmer’s profitability. 

TraceX’s Sustainability Solutions 

• Farmer Onboarding and Farm mapping 
• Baselining of Project parameters 
• Crop and Field activity along with Harvest/ Sales management 

Farmer Onboarding and Farm Mapping

Farmer onboarding involves capturing details like Plot ID, Survey number, Water source, soil type, address details, landholding details and production practices. This data is normally inputted through the user-friendly multilingual offline mobile app. The farm plots of each farmer is geo-spatially mapped. The geo-mapped farms can  also be registered for satellite monitoring where parameters like NDVI, Soil moisture and Soil Macro nutrient levels are captured. 

Baselining of Project Parameters 

Soil Health, Water availability, Biodiversity and Farmer’s profitability are the major baseline indicators measured in the project.

Soil Health- Assessment of Soil parameters and comparison of its trends over the years helps to analyse the land and soil health. 

• Organic Carbon 
• Ph 
• EC 
• Available N, P,K 

Water Availability- Soil moisture content and its comparison over years is necessary to construct watersheds and other harvesting structures. 

• Total ground water harvested. 
• Ground water table 
• Soil Moisture 

Biodiversity- Assessment of biodiversity parameters and comparison of its trends over the years helps to analyse biodiversity in the project region. 

• Floral species count 
• Faunal species count 
• Soil biota 

Farmer Profitability- Capturing the various costs incurred during the project and the revenue generated helps to assess farmer profitability. 

• Cost of Production 
• Productivity 
• Income 

Crop and Field activity along with Harvest/ Sales management 

This covers the following activities. 

• Crop variety Management 
• Input planner and Package of Practices for Crops 
• Harvest Planner 
• Crop monitoring and Tracking of PoP 

Reports and Dashboards 

Reports and Dashboards play a critical role in regenerative agriculture platforms by providing farmers and other stakeholders with key insights and data on various aspects of their operations. 

Farmer reports, Workflow reports, PoP deviation reports, Production cost reports, Harvest reports and Procurement reports are few of the reports generated. 

Dashboards provide a clear and concise way to communicate with stakeholders like investors, lenders and customers about the performance and sustainability of their operations. 

Training  

Regular farmer training programs are held on the ground. Training calendars are configured along with attendance reports. 

Benefits of Regenerative Agriculture practices 

• Regenerative agriculture is not only environmentally beneficial but also economically and socially sustainable. 
• With these practices, farmers can achieve the triple bottom line between economic viability, social welfare and environmental stewardship. 
• It also contributes to achievement of Sustainable development Goals related to zero hunger, climate action and responsible production and consumption. 
• Promotes social welfare by providing opportunities to women and marginalized communities. 

Win-Win for both 

By leveraging TraceX’s Sustainability and Carbon management platforms, the organization has been able to gain real-time visibility into sustainable farming practices and track and monitor their progress towards carbon neutrality and farmer welfare. 

This partnership has demonstrated the powerful impact that technology can have on the agriculture industry and its ability to drive sustainable change and benefit farmers and communities around the world.