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Regenerative farming is not currently the dominant production system in New Zealand. However, it is currently practiced by a small number of farmers and growers. It is also known as “agroecology”, “ecological” and “biological” and includes farms operating with the market certifications of biodynamic and organic. It is characterised by the significant diversification of crops, plants and animals and the low use of inputs, none of which are synthetic. Synthetic inputs are replaced with practices that mimic natural systems to access nutrients, water and pest control required for growth. Common practices include: Diversification, Agro-forestry; cover-cropping/green manures, intercropping, adaptive/holistic grazing, reduced tillage. Many of these have been developed with indigenous knowledge accumulated over millennia. Linking knowledge of indigenous groups in Chile and New Zealand agribusiness will strengthen the environmental and social corners in a triple bottom line approach.
Before Europeans arrived in New Zealand Māori had a staple diet of seafood and birds for protein, and aruhe (fern root) and cultivated imported crops. These crops, carried across the Pacific by their ancestors, were kūmara (sweet potato), taro, hue (bottle gourd) and uwhi (yam). The knowledge gained by Māori growing and storing these tropical crops in Aotearoa’s cooler climate gave them gardening skills that enabled them to move rapidly from subsistence gardening to commercial agriculture (Ahuwhenua, 2008) .
Nowadays, around 1.5 million hectares of land in New Zealand is Māori land (around 5% of New Zealand’s total land area). Of this, 750,187 hectares (49.5% of Māori land) is administered by ahuwhenua trusts and 207,157 hectares (13.7% of Māori land) by Māori incorporations. Almost all the incorporations, and a significant proportion of the ahuwhenua trusts, have an interest in agriculture. Many of the other organisations are involved in horticulture or forestry. In 2007 it was estimated that the asset value of these organisations was around $3.2 billion (Teara, 208).
In the pre-Spanish period, the Mapuche lived in scattered farming villages throughout the Central Valley. Each settlement had a cacique, or chief, whose authority did not generally extend beyond his own village. The Mapuche cultivated corn (maize), beans, squash, potatoes, chili peppers, and other vegetables and fished, hunted, and kept guinea pigs for meat. They kept llamas as pack animals and as a source of wool. A man's wealth was reckoned in terms of the size of his llama herd (Brittanica, 2021).
Mapuche agriculture today is the result of a long process of using technical methods in the countryside as well as employing public policies aimed at developing market agriculture.
They do crop rotations to avoid diseases and pests. A few years ago, they began to establish contour lines on slopes so that the water does not drain and enter the underground layers. To fertilise the land locals use products of animal origin, and sometimes some marine algae from the area, the “kolloy” or cochayuyo, as it is known in Chile. There are multiple agroecological techniques in the Mapuche orchards and they vary according to the territory, whether they are: Lafkenche (seafarers) or Pehuenche (mountain people). The main difference between these techniques is due to the different conditions of the soil, climate and food, among others. For example, the Lafkenche community can use marine algae for fertilisation whereas the Pehuenche cannot (Parra, 2020).