The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Agribusiness Hub has launched a new guide to support everyone in the food value chain – from businesses to policymakers – to reimagine their role in scaling regenerative agriculture practices.
‘Scaling Regenerative Farming: A Practical Guide’ follows the 2022 publication of ‘Scaling Regenerative Farming: An Action Plan’ which detailed five key issues which require urgent action to make regenerative farming more appealing to farmers: costs, policy, sourcing, metrics and income.
Further to work in 2023 to define four levers for implementation that could help address the five issues, the new guide is the result of a detailed 2024 study into understanding the barriers to scaling regenerative agriculture schemes successfully in the UK.
The study explored learnings from successful schemes and sought to understand what is preventing them from achieving greater scale and impact. Using the findings from this study, the guide outlines three sets of actions required:
- Near-term practical actions for private sector actors to optimise the design and implementation of individual schemes to support farmers
- The transformational actions needed from the private sector that could accelerate the pace of transition at scale
- The public sector actions required to create the conditions for farmers to make decisions with confidence and to encourage greater private sector investment and propositions
The Agribusiness Hub members now plan to put some of the private sector recommendations contained within the guide into practice in the East of England, where they will be testing a new model of cross-sector collaboration to incentivise and support farmers to scale regenerative farming. If successful, the ambition is to roll this model out to other regions in the UK.
Grant F. Reid, former CEO of Mars Group and outgoing Chair of the SMI’s Agribusiness Hub, said, “While there are many definitions of regenerative agriculture, there is near-universal agreement on its potential to significantly reduce global emissions, with some estimates suggesting it could contribute up to a third of the climate action needed by 2030. Yet it isn’t being widely implemented.
“The SMI’s Agribusiness Hub has sought to address this and by speaking directly with farmers and other stakeholders who face the challenges of implementation first-hand, we have uncovered what is working, what is not, and most importantly – why.
“The result is this practical guide, which we hope will become a vital tool for everyone in the food value chain – from businesses to policymakers – to reimagine their role in scaling regenerative practices.”
Simon Kenyon, Sustainable Food & Farming Lead, Lloyds Banking Group, said, “Supporting agriculture with its transition to a sustainable and profitable future is critical. As the largest financer of UK farms, we understand the importance of helping farmers and the power of the food supply chain. If you’re interested in understanding this critical landscape, then this report is an essential overview.”
Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, said, “The health of our soil has a direct impact on both planetary and human health, and is a key component in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. To address soil health via regenerative agriculture will require public-private collaboration to ensure scalability and whole-farm transformation. At the SMI we are a coalition of the ‘doing’, and so I am delighted that the members of our Agribusiness Hub have produced a practical, action-oriented guide to help companies, farming communities and policymakers transition to more sustainable practices.”
The guide is essential reading for agribusinesses, farming and food value-chain actors, actors with a financial interest in the sector, and policymakers shaping agricultural, environmental and sustainability frameworks.