Our Approach to Research

 

Our goal is to provide an environment for the development and dissemination of knowledge about natural ecosystem functions and processes that can be used by land managers to build productive and resilient natural capital that produces food, fibre and fuel sustainability. With our research partners, there is opportunity for scientific investigation unbiased by commercial interest. This research will quantify and qualify natural functions and processes that can be used to benefit farming and rural society.

For the benefit of future generations, we think it is important to:

 

• Rehydrate our floodplains by reconnecting them to our rivers and streams

• Restore nutrients to our forests and uplands so gravity carries them to the lower country

• Transition to farming systems that can keep soils optimised using renewable resources

• Equip farmers with the knowledge and tools they need to operate a farm that optimises soils and manages plants and animals with renewable resources

• Reward farmers for growing nutritional food rather than just quantity of food

• Implement consumer systems that are capable of recycling minerals, nutrients and unused produce back to soils

• Create a system where farmers are supported by society so they can invest effort to restore our natural systems to a better state of health: to move CO2 from our atmosphere to stable storage in soils and forests, to return our soils to optimum health and build ecosystems functions that store and make available resources such as rainfall and sunlight.

 

Building these farming systems based on renewable resources and building ecosystems functions to improve our resource base requires building knowledge about the functions and processes of natural systems, and how to enhance or inhibit different functions to achieve the desired natural resource goals, as well as agricultural productivity and resilience. We build knowledge we can rely on to help us take immediate action. We don’t have time to wait for 25 years for conclusive proof of innovative agricultural systems before we make changes to agricultural practice. We support an evidence-based discussion of fundamental natural processes and functions, which will assist farmers to make improved decisions now, and to enable them to monitor leading indicators of performance.

 

In building our knowledge and expertise in regenerating our ecosystems we are increasingly looking to the long time experience of our indigenous culture in Nigeria that managed the land and survived from it for thousands of years. Blending this expertise with that of our introduced “Israeli” systems can lead us forward to be able to not only survive, but thrive, into the very uncertain future as climate changes.