What is regenerative agriculture? All you need to know as Anand Mahindra proposes way ’to heal Delhi’s pollution’

The Delhi-NCR region remains in the midst of a ‘pollution crisis’ with the Air Quality Index hovering in the ‘severe’ category. The situation worsened on Wednesday with smoke from post-harvest paddy straw burning in neighbouring states accounting for one-third of the air pollution in the national capital. Against this backdrop businessman Anand Mahindra has stressed the importance of ‘regenerative agriculture’.

“To heal Delhi’s pollution, Regenerative Agriculture MUST be given a chance. It provides a remunerative alternative to stubble burning while simultaneously increasing soil productivity. Vikash Abraham of Naandi Foundation stands ready to help. Let’s do it!” he urged.

The air quality remained ‘severe’ in the national capital on Wednesday. As per data shared by the CPCB, the AQI stood at 452 in Anand Vihar and 433 at RK Puram. It was also recorded at 460 in Punjabi Bagh, 382 at Sri Aurobindo Marg and 413 at Shadipur.

The Naandi Foundation was created in 1998 as a public charitable trust and currently has more than 5,500 employees working across 15 states. The organisation runs thousands of skilling and employment centres as well as girls' education centres. Anand Mahindra currently chairs the board of the Foundation.

What is regenerative agriculture?

According to the farming organisation Regeneration International, there may not be enough soil left to grow food to feed the world within 50 years. Intensive farming churns up carbon dioxide naturally stored in the soil, and the use of heavy machinery, fertilizers and pesticides to maximize food production contributes to soil degradation. Damaged soil and eroded land can also make environments more vulnerable to extreme weather events like flooding.

“More than half of the world’s agricultural land is degraded. This leads to productivity losses of $400 billion a year and is a risk to food security in the future. Regenerative farming can restore agricultural land and reduce the industry’s environmental impact, including lowering greenhouse gas emissions,” a World Economic Forum article from 2022 explains.

This farming approach aims to improve soil health and by extension increase crop yield and even help mitigate climate change.

“Regenerative agriculture focuses on improving the health of the soil, which has been degraded by the use of heavy machinery, fertilizers and pesticides in intensive farming,” WEF adds.