Uddhab Chandra Sarmah
(ucsarmah@gmail.com)
The RegenAgri’ certification represents a transformative opportunity for the enervated age-old tea industry, offering a pathway toward revitalisation and long-term sustainability. Given the industry’s challenges, including environmental degradation, fluctuating markets, and labour-related issues, adopting regenerative agricultural practices could emerge as a “survivor strategy” for the 200-year-old sector. This needs a holistic approach to convince the entire stakeholders of the tea industry to come to an understanding on the same platform. Now to answer why and how the ‘RegenAgri’ matters for tea, the following objectives, which attribute to the benefits for RegenAgri, can be narrated as follows:
1. Sustainability and Soil Health: ‘RegenAgri’ focuses on practices that restore soil health, conserve water, and enhance biodiversity—critical for tea plantations that have long relied on intensive monoculture farming.
2. Economic Viability: By improving ecosystem services (such as pollination and nutrient cycling), these methods can reduce dependency on chemical inputs and lower production costs while potentially commanding higher prices for sustainably produced tea.
3. Climate Resilience: Tea plantations are highly vulnerable to climate change. RegenAgri-certified practices can help build resilience by improving soil carbon sequestration and reducing emissions.
4. Global Market Alignment: As consumers and retailers increasingly prioritise sustainable and ethically sourced products, RegenAgri certification aligns the industry with evolving market expectations. ‘RegenAgri’ is a global initiative that supports regenerative agricultural practices, which aim to enhance soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. One of its key contributions is in carbon sequestration, where carbon is captured and stored in the soil and vegetation, and how this translates to benefits for tea farmers in terms of carbon credits:
5. Promoting Regenerative Practices for Carbon Sequestration RegenAgri works with tea farmers to adopt sustainable practices that increase organic matter in the soil, enhancing its capacity to store carbon. These practices include: • Cover Cropping: Growing cover crops reduces soil erosion, enhances soil structure, and increases organic matter, capturing atmospheric CO?. • No-Till or Reduced Tillage: Reduces soil disturbance, preventing carbon release and promoting carbon retention.
n Crop Rotation and Diversification: Boosts biodiversity and soil health, improving long-term carbon sequestration.
n Agroforestry and Perennial Crops: Incorporates trees and long-term vegetation, which are effective carbon sinks.
n Integrated Livestock Management: Proper grazing techniques improve pasture health and carbon storage in grasslands.
2. Measurement and Monitoring of Carbon Sequestration RegenAgri employs technologies like:
n Soil Testing: Regular testing to measure organic carbon levels.
n Remote Sensing and Data Analysis: Monitoring changes in vegetation and soil health.
n Life Cycle Assessments (LCA): Quantifying carbon footprints and the net sequestration achieved.
3. Linking Tea Farmers to Carbon Markets Through its certification and advisory services, RegenAgri enables farmers to:
n Demonstrate Carbon Gains: Certified farmers can prove that their practices sequester carbon.
n Earn Carbon Credits: Farmers can monetise the sequestered carbon by selling carbon credits in global carbon markets. These credits are purchased by industries and companies aiming to offset their emissions.
n Participate in Sustainable Supply Chains: RegenAgri connects farmers with corporations that value sustainable practices, offering incentives beyond carbon credits.
4. Economic and Environmental Benefits • Farmers’ Revenue: Carbon credits provide an additional income stream, encouraging the adoption of sustainable practices.
n Improved Soil Health: Enhanced productivity and reduced dependence on synthetic inputs.
n Climate Resilience: Healthier soils lead to better water retention, reducing vulnerability to droughts and floods. By helping farmers improve soil health and access carbon markets, RegenAgri not only supports climate change mitigation but also ensures sustainable livelihoods for tea farmers. The Need for a Holistic Approach: To ensure widespread adoption of RegenAgri principles, the following steps are critical:
n Stakeholder Engagement: Tea growers, manufacturers, traders, policymakers, and certifying bodies must collaborate on a shared platform to align goals and standards.
n Education and Capacity Building: Many stakeholders in the tea sector may need training to adopt and maintain regenerative practices.
n Incentives and Support: Governments, NGOs, and private entities should offer financial incentives or subsidies to offset the transition costs for smallholder tea farmers.
n Transparent Communication: A clear understanding of the benefits (both ecological and economic) is essential to garner industry-wide support.
n Monitoring and Reporting: Reliable systems for tracking the impacts of regenerative practices will boost credibility and stakeholder trust. Quoting below an excerpt of Mr. Franco Constantini, CEO of RegenAgri, who spoke out in an interview recently at the Asia Alliance held in Kolkata as follows: “The Indian tea industry is at a critical juncture due to climate change, soil degradation, and regulatory demands. RegenAgri promotes regenerative agriculture practices that restore an ecosystem. For tea producers, this means improving soil health, increasing biodiversity, and enhancing water retention. By enhancing these methods, we mitigate climate risks and reduce carbon footprints and the resilience and productivity of tea plantations. Our plan for the tea industry is to establish RegenAgri certification as a benchmark for sustainability.“It is to be noted that over 230,000 farms worldwide under agricultural crops already have been covered under RegenAgri certification and there has been a plan of covering over 4 lakh hectares of tea plantation areas under RegenAgri upto the end of 2030. The tea industry must embrace RegenAgri as more than just a certification—it’s a lifeline. By adopting a unified and collaborative approach, this initiative could ensure the survival and prosperity of the tea sector for generations to come.