Regenerative Agriculture Adoption among Brazilian Soybean Farmers

Abstract

In the current context of climate change and ecosystem degradation, regenerative agriculture is a farming practice that is gaining attention for its climate mitigation and biodiversity loss reversal potential. However, there is still no global definition for it. Without a global definition, measurements of its adoption vary, as do assessments of the belief that farmers have in the environmental and productivity benefits of regenerative agriculture and the barriers they perceive to adopting it. Furthermore, there are limited offerings of price premiums for the products of farmers who follow such practices. This research assumes that regenerative farming practices entail lower climate and environmental risks compared to traditional farming methods. Therefore, it is important to understand levels of adoption and belief on regenerative agriculture for a transition to regenerative agriculture occur. To assess the adoption rate of four regenerative practices for soybean farming in Brazil (no tillage, cover cropping, crop-livestock systems, and the use of bio inputs), understand the environmental and productivity beliefs and the main barrier to adoption that farmers face, 22 Brazilian soybean producers were interviewed in a semi-structured format. Respondents answered questions about their adoption rates for the four practices, their perceptions of the environmental and productivity benefits of regenerative farming, the primary barrier to adoption they observe, broader challenges they face with soybean farming, and whether they observe any price premium for adopting regenerative practices.