Temperate Regenerative Agriculture practices increase soil carbon but not crop yield—a meta-analysis

Summary

Regenerative Agriculture (RA) claims to build soil organic carbon (SOC) and increase crop yields through simultaneous adoption of a suite of management practices which restore soil health. However, this claim is largely unevidenced as few studies of fully integrated regenerative systems are currently available. As a first step to addressing this knowledge gap, we here examine three practices now being promoted as part of RA: reducing tillage intensity, cover cropping and including a grass-based phase in arable rotations (ley-arable rotations). Our Bayesian meta-analysis of 195 paired SOC and crop yield observations from a systematic review of published studies finds statistically significant increases in SOC concentration for reduced tillage intensity (0.06 g C · 100 g−1) and ley-arable ro