Internationally renowned soil educator, Nicole Masters, returned to New Zealand in November for a Soil Resilience Tour, consisting of two in-depth workshops in the North and South Island.
For the past 20 years, Masters has been coaching farmers and ranchers around the world in the ways of biological and regenerative farming, or rather the ‘thinking, tools and approaches required to build soil, and ecosystem health, food quality and profitability’.
A Kiwi, now living and farming in Montana USA, Masters has a long history working with New Zealand farmers who’ve embarked on the journey to transition their systems into ecologically thriving and profitable businesses.
She has seen first-hand how soil quality can translate to a more resilient farming system, able to cope with the ever-increasing volatility of today’s farming environment. She hopes to help more New Zealand farmers feel confident farming in these challenging conditions.
“Our country has suffered huge losses in agriculture in the past two years due to major weather events. The human, economic and ecological toll is hard to bear, but it is also a wake-up call. We need to look at how we are farming for resilience; for our future ability to grow nutritious food, improve biodiversity and profitability. It starts with soil.”, Masters says.
“Farmers are adaptive; they’re great innovators and problem solvers, and these Soil Resilience workshops are about harnessing that potential by providing the tools to make informed decisions about the health of their soils.”
Masters is well-known for her 2019 book For the Love of Soil which is highly regarded globally as a regenerative and biological farming handbook. It provides a roadmap to healthy soil and revitalised food systems and equipping producers with knowledge, skills, and insights to regenerate ecosystem health and grow farm/ranch profits.
Visit www.soilsisters.nz for more information.
