Welcome
CSU, Chico Regenerative Agriculture Initiative (RAI) promotes regenerative farming practices capable of drawing down legacy greenhouse gases levels, restoring soil resiliency, increasing the economic viability and sustainability of farms/ranches, and addressing food insecurity.
On-Farm Transition Program
Effective demonstrations, on-farm field days, and farmer to farmer mentors.
On-Farm Applied Research Program
This program is focused on building soil and sequestering carbon (farmer driven).
Learn More About RA with the Right Tools
We are creating the Journal for Regenerative Agriculture to educate students, farmers, academics, and consumers about the RA impacts for on-farm profitability and ecological services.
The Regenerative Agriculture Initiative is comprised of a working group of multi-disciplinary faculty who have come together to develop collaborative research and teaching strategies for primary purpose of drawing down legacy levels of greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sequestration and ecosystem service restoration. This science based effort will have far reaching implications across disciplines in areas of climate and food policy, agricultural husbandry practices, food justice, business models, as well as local food sheds. The intent of this group is to spur the creation of an educational focus investigating agriculture that restores climate stability from a transdisciplinary perspective and ultimately to share best practices from the initiative’s research efforts with society and the broader agricultural community.
Featured Content
The " Conservation Tillage Farmer Focus Group" is a group of progressive farmers working collaboratively with UCCE and CSU Chico RAI faculty to investigate "best methods" for reducing soil disturbance in organic vegetable cropping systems. Tillage is a popular tool to control weeds in organic vegetable production, albiet, at the expense of building SOM due to excessive soil disturbance. A Conservation Innovation Grant will support independent trials on six working farms including Scott Park Farms, Meridian CA; Paul Meuller, Full Belly Farm, Capay, CA; Phil Foster Ranches, Hollister, CA; Paul Kaiser, Singing Frogs Farm, Sonoma County; Tom Willey, TD Willey Farms, Madera County; and the CSU Chico University Farm Organic Vegetable Unit, CSU Chico University Farm. Results (minutes) from our first gathering can be accessed by clicking the links below. For more information contact Dr. Cindy Daley ( cdaley@csuchico.edu) or Jeff Mitchell ( jpmitchell@ucdavis.edu).
