The Mendes Gonçalves Foundation, in a press release, presents the guide to best practices in Soil Protection and Regeneration, a publication that gathers practical recommendations based on scientific knowledge to support farmers, technicians, and professionals involved in land management in adopting practices that contribute to healthier soils and to more resilient, productive, and sustainable agricultural systems.
According to the same source, developed within the Regenerar program, with financial support from the Soilscape project and aligned with the objectives of the Horizon Europe Soil Mission, the guide seeks to bring scientific research closer to agricultural practice and to contribute to decisions tailored to the reality of each soil, crop, and farm.
Regenerative agriculture has been gaining prominence in the debate about the future of food production, in a context marked by climate change, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and the need to make agricultural systems more resilient. Transforming these principles into concrete on-the-ground decisions requires more than adopting a set of practices: first it is necessary to understand the context and diagnose the existing limitations.
It is precisely from this premise that the guide to best practices Soil Protection and Regeneration begins: there are no universal recipes to regenerate soil. Before any intervention, it is necessary to assess three inseparable dimensions of soil health — physical, chemical, and biological. The document therefore proposes a path that starts with knowledge and mapping of the territory, passes through field observation and laboratory analyses, and only then leads to the definition of the most appropriate practices for each reality.
“Regenerative agriculture should not be viewed as a recipe that can be applied the same way everywhere. The first step is to understand the soil’s state, its limitations and potential. With this guide we want to support the dissemination of scientific knowledge, making it not only more accessible but, above all, more useful for those who have to make day-to-day decisions in the field,” says Manuel dos Santos, director of the Regenerar program at the Mendes Gonçalves Foundation.
The guide to best practices Soil Protection and Regeneration organizes this approach around six fundamental principles: understand the context; minimize soil disturbance; supply the soil with carbon; keep the soil covered; promote biodiversity above and below the surface; and integrate livestock. Building on these principles, six areas are explored in depth: mechanical soil intervention; cover crops; organic matter and mulching; integrated fertilization; pest and disease management; and animal integration. In each area, agronomic fundamentals, benefits, application strategies, and main errors to avoid are presented.
Among the practices analyzed are, for example, cover crops, used to protect the soil from erosion, promote water infiltration, and increase biodiversity; the management of organic matter, decisive for soil structure, water retention, and nutrient availability; or integrated fertilization, based on nutritional balance and knowledge of the actual needs of the soil and crops.
“One of the great challenges is to ensure that scientific knowledge reaches those who work daily on the ground, in a way that is useful and applicable. That is the role we want Regenerar to assume: to create bridges between research and practice, to share knowledge and to contribute to farmers and technicians having increasingly more tools to make informed decisions and tailored to their context,” adds Manuel dos Santos.
The launch of the guide takes place within the activities of the Regenerar program of the Mendes Gonçalves Foundation, which seeks to bring science closer to agricultural practice, promote the training of farmers, technicians, schools, and the community, and contribute to the regeneration of soils and biodiversity. The guide gathers national and international scientific references and is intended to function as a tool to support the adoption of practices suited to the characteristics and objectives of each farm.
You can consult the guide HERE.
