Abstract

Regenerative agriculture represents a paradigm shift from conventional farming practices, emphasizing soil health restoration and carbon sequestration. This study evaluates the effectiveness of regenerative agricultural practices in enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) storage across different agroecological zones. A comprehensive field study was conducted over three years (2020-2023) comparing regenerative practices including cover cropping, no-till farming, diverse crop rotations, and integrated livestock grazing with conventional agricultural systems. Results demonstrated that regenerative practices increased SOC content by 23-41% compared to conventional systems, with the highest sequestration rates observed in integrated crop-livestock systems (2.8±0.4 Mg C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹). Cover cropping showed the most consistent benefits across all soil types, increasing SOC by an average of 0.8 Mg C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Microbial biomass carbon increased by 67% under regenerative management, indicating enhanced soil biological activity. The study concludes that regenerative agriculture can significantly contribute to climate change mitigation while improving soil health and agricultural sustainability. Implementation of these practices could potentially sequester 1.85 Gt C globally by 2030 if adopted on 25% of agricultural land.