Soil health is making headlines, with USDA launching a $700 million pilot program for regenerative practices. One tech developer at Syngenta says it’s taken years to come up with some of their designs.
Syngenta Group CEO Jeff Rowe says: “We’ve been doing a multi-year experiment where we’ve been comparing things like conventional tillage, no-till, strip-till, cover crops, lots of different soil health type of practices, and then comparing the differences.” He goes on to say that some of the positive short-term results they have observed include an increase in soil organic matter and increased water holding capacity - both important factors for farmers. Rowe says that he’s implementing soil health practices on his own family farm in Illinois.
This month, USDA launched the multi-million dollar pilot program to help support regenerative ag practices. Ag secretary Brooke Rollins made the announcement alongside HHS secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. She said it will help farmers adopt soil-friendly practices using programs they already know and trust.