Regenerative Agriculture Needs Assessment

Regenerative Agriculture Needs Assessment Research Summary

Sara Rosenberg

Background context

In 2023 and 2024 two regenerative agriculture (RA) advisors were hired at UCANR. One as a county advisor covering Mariposa Merced and Stanislaus counties and one as a cooperative extension specialist based at UC Merced. Overall functionality of these positions is to support the successful adoption and transition of regenerative practices across farms in California through research and extension. These positions are highly collaborative in nature as they focus across agricultural systems and must be able to understand a diversity of farm types under different environmental contexts. While RA is not a new concept, the term is being popularized with limited agreement on a concise definition. Due to the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of these positions a comprehensive needs assessment is necessary to develop a road map for research and extension activities. Using mixed methods including interviews, focus groups, site observations and surveys, the RA Needs Assessment is a comprehensive baseline assessment to help guide UCCE Regenerative Agriculture Program development. The objectives are to 1) Learn how growers perceive and understand regenerative agriculture, and motivations for adoption, 2) learn what regenerative agriculture looks like in selected regions 3) Determine agronomic, economic, and ecological benefits and challenges/ barriers growers are experiencing, 5) Using this information identify opportunities for future research and extension goals for RA programs.

In tandem to this, an internal assessment was aimed to further understand how other UCANR employees are working in the field of RA and what successful collaboration may look like between positions. To support RA uptake and successful transitioning, interdisciplinary programmatic development is necessary, which requires more intentionally designed collaborations between agencies to execute these programs successfully. Therefore, an assessment of UCANR employees and partnering agencies will provide information on how to build capacity for collaboration efforts with UCANR and selected partners, to develop and execute successful regenerative programming. To attain these goals the assessment has 4 major objectives: 1) Determine how UCANR employees and selected partnering agencies understand/perceive RA, 2) Determine what work has already been done in RA and what work should be further explored 3) Determine what resources would be useful to improve agencies abilities to extend RA knowledge and improve technical advisors' ability to advance RA farms, 4) Determine future research goals required in the field of RA.

Current state of the project

Interviews and focus groups and site visits have been conducted and analyzed. Currently we are writing a report and action plan document of all the findings thus far. We intend to send this written report back to interested partners including growers from Farmer Ag Network, and COAR participants, and other interested UCANR employes, to provide feedback. This written document will be housed in a couple online sites and used as a source for seeking funding, and a guide for project and research development. 

For the internal assessment interviews have been conducted and transcribed. Surveys have collected and preliminary analysis completed. 

The direction the work is planned to go

Ideally the report will also include quantitative outcomes from the surveys deployed. Currently it is only including the qualitative data. This written document will be housed in a couple online sites and used as a source for seeking funding, and a guide for project and research development. Ideally a publication will be an output of this work as well. 

The internal assessment has less direction. It would be nice to have findings presented back to UCANR employees in some capacity. I think the information should be returned to when time allows to assess the value and use of the information. 

With whom the work will engage and how

Mostly the work has engaged growers in the selected regions, but there has also been participation from other organizations working in the space, as well as philanthropic organizations. The internal assessment has engaged UCANR employees RCD, Pointblue and CAFF. 

Methods for a general audience

We implemented a mixed method approach including using surveys, semi structured interviews, and focus groups, as well as field visits to achieve our objectives. Thus far the needs assessment has conducted 28 interviews, 10 field tours, organized four listening sessions and one regenerative agriculture conference at UC Merced. Surveys have also been collected from roughly 50 farmers and over 100 UCCE employees. Qualitative coding software (Nvivo) was used to explore semi structured interviews and uploaded summary notes of focus group responses by analyzing themes and relationships. Interview questions cover topics related to three themes: Perceptions and attitudes, what farming regeneratively looks like in the region, and what challenges exist. Preliminary results were shared through community based listening sessions, then further discussions arose, gaining feedback on current outcomes, and expanding findings. Four listening sessions were held with 12- 50 participants attending. Sessions were held in Merced, Modesto, and Cathey’s Valley. One session was aimed at tree nut producers, one was aimed at annual cropping systems, one was for small farms, and one for mariposa region specific.  A fifth listening session, not organized by UCCE, was held in Fresno. For the small farm’s session, the topic of SGMA and water conservation were selected, and discussions arose around what types of water conservation practices were used on small farms, what knowledge and experiences exists about SGMA regulations, and what may be needed to increase knowledge flow of SGMA for small farmers.

Activity leads and team members 

Lead- Sara Rosenberg, Co- Lead- Srabani Das

Other collaborators: Katie Lynn Butterfield, Possible IAD student at UC Davis

Timeline of activities and proposed deliverables

How will the project address policy and/or be policy-informed?

This project is more of a grassroots effort. It would be interesting to see how grassroots methods and efforts can be used to influence policy. But I believe that the baseline assessment may be valuable to state agencies or advocate groups to inform policy needs. It could be helpful in providing information to support theory of change development in some capacity. I am open to further exploring this with individuals who are more inclined in taking a policy lens. 

How, and with whom, will educational integration take place?

I am not certain currently. I can see this work being valuable for developing the TAPE assessment tool and for developing the short course for UCANR. A lot of students are interested in RA as a topic but may still have an idealistic view of what RA farms look like. This work could provide a scope of what Regenerative farms look like in California and be a tool to discuss barriers to adoption and participatory approaches to extension research development. 

Support equitable regional transitions:

• How will your project support addressing historical injustices & current structural inequities?
• How does your project aim to shift the UC as an institution to support equitable regional transitions, in agrifood systems and beyond?

I am trying to include a wide range of land managers in this project, including small farms beginning farmers, indigenous communities etc. The equity lens should be enhanced, however. We had one small farms focus group, and interviews dominantly were with English speaking white males. There was an effort to integrate woman growers in the interviews. Many site visits were with small farms due to the inability to interview them based on cultural and language barriers.