Regenerative farming may shield crops from drought losses

Regenerative farming practices could help protect arable crops from the worst effects of drought, new European field data suggests.

The research by Soil Capital is based on independently verified data from 1,262 farms covering 331,600 hectares in France.

In the area where the most detailed evaluation was carried out, yields of the crop most affected by the 2023 drought fell by 22% on the least regenerative farms.

By comparison, highly regenerative farms recorded an 8% decline.

Soil Capital said the findings suggest regenerative practices could help reduce drought-related yield losses at a time when climate stress is placing growing pressure on crop production.

The analysis focused on commonly grown European arable crops, including winter wheat, winter barley, winter rapeseed, spring barley, grain maize and potatoes.

Although the research is based on farms in France, the findings are likely to be watched closely by arable growers across Europe, including the UK, as drought risk becomes an increasing concern.

The dataset was built through Soil Capital’s regenerative farming transition programme.

It combines information on farming practices, yields and soil conditions at field level, which the organisation said had not previously been available at this scale or level of detail.

Regenerative systems commonly include practices such as reducing soil disturbance, using cover crops, improving rotations, building organic matter and keeping living roots in the soil for longer.

Soil Capital said evidence linking regenerative agriculture with improved resilience has, until now, been largely limited to individual farm studies or theoretical modelling.

The organisation said the trend was visible across the wider French dataset and remained statistically significant when other potential factors, such as soil type, were taken into account.

Across cereal crops, 82 of France’s 96 regions experienced significant drought during the period studied.

Within those areas, regenerative practices reduced drought-related yield losses by at least 10% in around 85% of cases, according to the analysis.

Andrew Voysey, chief impact officer at Soil Capital, said the research marked an important step in measuring how farming systems respond to climate pressure.

“For the first time, we are moving beyond anecdote or modelling to show, through large-scale independently verified field data, how regenerative agriculture can help protect production,” he said.

He added that the findings began to move resilience “from a high-level concept towards something that can be understood and managed as a financial risk factor”.

Following the early results, Mr Voysey said Soil Capital was now working with industry and academic partners to turn the insights into “more informed, risk-adjusted decision-making”.

Erik Mathijs, head of agricultural, food and resource economics at KU Leuven in Belgium, which is the initiative’s first academic partner, said access to robust data had long been a challenge.

“There has long been academic interest in how different farming practices can moderate the damaging effects of climate stress on farm output, but what has held us all back is the lack of robust field-level data across large geographies and multiple successive years,” he said.

He said Soil Capital’s dataset was “unusually strong” and created an opportunity to combine economic and statistical expertise with the organisation’s agronomic and data science capabilities.

The findings add to growing interest in whether farming systems can be managed to reduce production risk as drought and extreme weather become more frequent.

They also suggest regenerative farming may increasingly be viewed not only as an environmental approach, but as a way to protect output and manage climate-related financial risk.