Why Farmers Should Transition to Regenerative Agriculture with Dr. Rudolf Overbeek and Charles

Let’s Talk Agriculture Podcast

[00:00:00] Intro [00:00:36] Sharon Idahosa: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of our sustainability series. [00:00:41] Sharon Idahosa: It's really been an exciting and insightful time for me. I mean, I've been discussing with industry experts with a sustainability focus globally. Now, if this is your first time joining or listening, we've had about two episodes already, and you may want to go back and listen. [00:01:00] All of our episodes are available on letstalkagriculture. com [00:01:03] Sharon Idahosa: Now, this episode is exclusively sponsored by FoodChainid. So for more information, please do well to visit foodchainid.com. My name is Sharon Idahosa and I am your host. Once again, welcome to the Let's Talk Agriculture podcast show. Today, I will be discussing with two amazing personalities who will be sharing their perspective [00:01:26] Sharon Idahosa: and the work that they do on the topic of regenerative agriculture. So friends, families join me welcome Charles of Virco Group and Dr. Rudolf of Food Chain ID. Hello, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining the show today. How are you doing? [00:01:43] Ruud: Doing very fine. Thank you very much. And pleased to talk to you. [00:01:47] Sharon Idahosa: Charles. [00:01:48] Charles: I'm doing great, Sharon. Great. I'm doing great, Sharon. It's great to be here. so [00:01:51] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you so much. So I'm really excited about what we are going to learn today. And for us to get this ball rolling, I'm just going to need [00:02:00] to get your perspective on regenerative agriculture. What does it mean? What is, what is the idea behind regenerative agriculture? [00:02:09] Sharon Idahosa: Charles, maybe you can go first and then Rudolf, you can take over from Charles. [00:02:13] Charles: Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. So over the years, um, quite recently, regenerative agriculture has become such a hot topic in the agricultural space, especially in this current times that there are issues with climate change and we're seeing the effects on what climate change is doing for us. [00:02:34] Charles: So to break it down to a simple term, regenerative agriculture from how I see it is all about farming or if you're into grazing, while solely based on regenerating the topsoil and allowing farmers to maintain crop yields, improve water retention, plants uptake, but the bottom line is increasing farm profitability and especially with how the food production currently [00:03:00] Charles: is leaning towards in terms of trends, there's a big importance on how people want to know food is being produced. So with this kind of situations, these are when regenerative agriculture comes into place because it puts a lot more focus, not just on crop, not just on crop yield, but more on strengthening the health and the vitality of the farm soil. [00:03:22] Charles: Because at the end of today, You know, once you put in these activities into your planting, you know, it helps a lot in the long term. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, system that is being smiled upon now globally. And even with the issues with climate change that we are even experiencing here in Nigeria, you know, it's become important that these are the methods that should be adopted. [00:03:48] Charles: in the current day and time for farming, farming practices right now. So that's it's just a short, short, short idea on what we what we coined the term or [00:04:00] believe in the term; regenerative agriculture. [00:04:02] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I would have wanted to ask how well it's really been adopted here in Nigeria, but maybe we'll come to that briefly. 00:04:12] Sharon Idahosa: Let me just hear from Rudolph. So, over to you. Yeah,