Regenerative Agriculture Must Be Grounded in Farmers’ Realities

In recent years, Indonesian farmers have become increasingly familiar with unpredictable weather patterns. El Niño, for instance, can bring prolonged dry seasons, placing greater pressure on water availability and agricultural productivity. For farmers, climate change is no longer simply an issue discussed at global forums. It is a risk that directly affects their harvests and incomes.

These conditions make efforts to build more resilient agricultural systems increasingly important. One approach gaining attention is regenerative agriculture, which places soil health, resource efficiency, biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience at the centre of farming practices.

Yet the success of this approach will ultimately depend on a fundamental question: Can regenerative agriculture become a practical and economically viable part of farmers’ everyday lives and livelihoods?

Transitioning to new practices requires adjustments and comes with costs, while farmers must continue to maintain productivity and sustain their livelihoods amid uncertain weather and market conditions. Creating the conditions that enable farmers to make this transition is therefore a shared responsibility.

The transition towards regenerative agriculture must begin with an understanding of these realities. Environmentally beneficial practices must also be applicable to local contexts and deliver tangible benefits to farmers, supported by an enabling ecosystem of policies, knowledge, financing, and markets.

Starting with Context, Not Just Methods

Regenerative agriculture is fundamentally a set of principles that places soil health and ecosystem resilience at the heart of agricultural practices. Because conditions vary across regions, its implementation does not need to follow a uniform approach.

In one region, agroforestry may be the most suitable approach. Elsewhere, intercropping or improved water management may offer greater benefits. For certain commodities, crop diversification may be appropriate, while for others, improving soil management and agricultural input use may be a more practical starting point.

The strength of regenerative agriculture, therefore, lies in its ability to adapt its principles to local conditions.

Smallholder farmers managing irrigated rice fields in Java face different challenges from cocoa farmers in Sulawesi. Their cropping cycles, labour requirements, access to water, market structures, and capacity to absorb risks are not the same.

Regenerative agriculture should therefore not be introduced as a one-size-fits-all package of practices. Farmers need the opportunity to identify, experiment with, and evaluate approaches that best suit their land and farming operations.

Indonesia has a strong foundation on which to build this approach. Traditional practices such as intercropping, agroforestry, the use of organic materials, and water management have long been part of farming systems across the country.

This knowledge is a valuable asset. At the same time, local knowledge can continue to evolve through scientific research, technology, and evidence-based learning.

By combining farmers' experience with scientific knowledge, we can identify practices that are not only ecologically beneficial but also agronomically sound and economically viable.

Turning Evidence into Action

Changing the way people farm requires a process of learning and adaptation.

New practices may appear straightforward in theory, but implementing them in the field raises practical questions: How much additional labour will be required? How will yields be affected? When will the benefits become visible? And how can farmers manage risks during the transition?

Farmers therefore need opportunities to observe and experiment, rather than simply receive recommendations.

Demonstration plots, model farmers, and agricultural extension services can provide important spaces for connecting knowledge with practical experience. Indonesia also has a strong foundation in its tradition of Sekolah Lapang, or Farmer Field Schools, where farmers learn through observation, experimentation, and collective evaluation.

Peer-to-peer learning plays an equally important role. When farmers can see how a particular practice works for others operating under similar conditions, the learning process becomes more tangible and relevant.

Such an approach also helps avoid the assumption that every practice will deliver the same results in every location.

Ensuring Economic Returns and Market Access

Ultimately, farmers must make decisions that sustain their livelihoods. Environmental benefits alone are not sufficient to encourage farmers to transition to new practices. The transition must also create opportunities for farmers to maintain, and ideally increase, their incomes.

Diversification can strengthen farm resilience while contributing to more diverse and nutritious food systems. However, farmers also need confidence that there will be buyers for what they produce.

Without reliable market demand or clear purchasing commitments, even practices with demonstrated agronomic benefits will struggle to achieve widespread adoption. The success of regenerative agriculture therefore depends not only on what happens on the farm, but also on whether the surrounding ecosystem makes these practices economically viable.

Creating these conditions requires collaboration across sectors.

Governments need to ensure that policies and support mechanisms respond to farmers' needs and encourage practices suited to local conditions. Researchers and universities can strengthen the evidence base on which approaches work in the Indonesian context. Development organisations and philanthropic institutions can support learning and experimentation during the early stages of transition.

Cooperatives and farmer groups can facilitate knowledge exchange, manage demonstration plots, aggregate production, and improve market access. Buyers and financial institutions can provide demand signals and help reduce the financial risks associated with the initial transition.

Ultimately, regenerative agriculture will take root when farmers can see that the practices work, understand how to apply them, and recognise the economic benefits that make them worth sustaining.

This article was written by Cazadira Fediva Tamzil, Executive Director of Pijar Foundation, and was originally published in Media Indonesia.