English 
Tim Williams is a farmer and agroecological advisor, coach and mentor. He is currently training under Nicole Masters and the Integrity Soils team to empower farmers to make the transition to regenerative and agroecological systems. Tim is also one of our ‘Agrobiodiversity Champions’, and in this blog post he explores the complex relationships both above and within the soil that help to build on-farm resilience.
Modern agriculture is currently at a crossroads. If we head straight on, we continue along the degrading path of monoculture crop production with singular cropping systems supported by synthetic nutrients and toxic agrichemicals; large-scale livestock systems that rely on small pools of genetics, with animals fed on singular legumes of dubious origin and basic grains; and global supply chains of intensively produced fruit and vegetables which offer very little in terms of variety, diversity and nutritional value.
These large-scale systems of commodity production offer little in terms of nutrition, immunity, complexity and resilience. As our environmental and international circumstances become more fraught, we need a distinct paradigm shift, to avert the pathway from one of degradation, towards one of restoration.
Agrobiodiversity is the antithesis to these modern monoculture systems. Instead of promoting specialisation, it embraces the complexity and diversity of animals, plants and associated wildlife in farming systems. Multifarious and small-scale systems that embrace diversity, recognising that plants operate in communities, and are not competitors, and that through complexity we can build resilience.
Over the past few decades, modern agriculture has turned its back on these concepts, opting instead for a simplistic system of control, whereby singular crops are grown at scale, both for high yield and simplicity of production – sowing, harvesting, processing – in order to generate cheap food at scale. These commoditised systems now overshadow the smaller more complicated systems of the past.
But it is to our detriment.
If we look to nature we see complexity of systems abound. Native grasslands, for example are comprised of complex blends of forbs, legumes, grasses and wildflowers, each species with its own role to play. The forbs, or herbs, draw up precious trace elements with their deep root systems, legumes in cooperation with bacterial communities fix the nitrogen needed for communal growth, grasses capture energy via photosynthesis to feed back into the soil, and the wildflowers attract pollinators and support complex insect communities.
The role of native livestock within these grassland systems further enhances this relationship, managing the photosynthesis through their modes of grazing, maximising energy capture, enhancing the humification of soils and building complex fungal communities by the trampling of lignified plant material as the season changes throughout the year. The accumulation of plant material within their rumens, combined with complex gut microbes further enhances the fertility of these soil systems. Livestock both above and below ground being the builders and recyclers of fertility.
The idea of competition is a human construct. In nature, plant communities are continually supporting each other, to nurture their young, ward off pests, and increase nutrient availability. Plants also thrive on diversity, the more complex the plant community, the more successful that community will be.
In the simplest of terms, we now know that soil, one of our most precious global resources, functions through a series of these very intricate and symbiotic relationships – plants supporting biology and biology supporting plants, in an exchange of energy for minerals. The greater that diversity within both the plant community and the biological community, the greater the resilience and functionality of those communities. To the point that, the greater the complexity of the above ground plant and animal community, the greater the complexity of the below-ground bacterial and fungal community.
Over the past three and a bit years I have been working to develop these intricate and quite complex relationships, taking on a degraded and historically high input monoculture system I set out to prove the role of nature within our farming systems. Introducing complex plant communities which followed the natural succession of soil – brassicas into annuals; annuals into perennials, communities which, although sown simultaneously, evolved to form their own natural communities as the soil biology evolved in tandem.
To speed the development of the below-ground livestock I introduced complex microbial communities through the mode of composting, applying this compost as a bio-priming agent at sowing, followed up with successive compost tea applications. All the while managing the aboveground livestock on an adaptive grazing system. The results speak for themselves, Erth Barton is now a fully functioning regenerative organic farm ecosystem, full of soil life, a thriving plant community with birds, bats and insects making a return.
Instead of carrying straight ahead at this crossroads, we must take a turn and start doing things differently. We can start supporting those on the land – those who are returning systems back to small-scale operations, communities of growers and farmers with the ability to oversee multiple operations, diverse systems which feed into one another. We can start building fertility with stacked livestock operations and composting systems, incorporating these with diverse cropping and growing systems which then utilise the accumulated fertility. We can encourage and support the development of agroforestry systems which offer aboveground complexity and ultimately employing nature as our cue for the development of these much needed agroecological farming systems.
Click here to learn more about our Agrobiodiversity = Resilience campaign, and how you can get involved by becoming an Agrobiodiversity Champion.
Photo of Tim (Image credit: Joya Berrow)
All other photos (Credit: Tim Williams)
