Regenerative Agriculture: A Pathway to Climate Resilience

Agriculture faces significant challenges under a changing climate, with increasingly unpredictable weather patterns disrupting farming operations, degrading soil health, impacting crop growth and thus threatening food security. Extreme rainfall and prolonged droughts during critical planting and growth periods can severely reduce yields and profitability, underscoring the urgent need for adaptive strategies.

Regenerative agriculture has emerged as a farmer-led movement aimed at improving soil health and enhancing system resilience. It is guided by six core principles: understanding farm context, minimising soil disturbance, maintaining year-round soil cover, increasing diversity, integrating livestock, and sustaining a living root throughout the year. However, regenerative agriculture encompasses a wide range of practices, and implementation varies across farms with different soils and climates. Transitioning to a regenerative agriculture system is complex, often requiring new skills, equipment, and management approaches. Furthermore, soil health improvements occur gradually, thus creating a transition period that can increase farm business risk, particularly under climate extremes.

At the University of Leeds farm in Yorkshire, England, we have established a replicated, large-plot field trial to evaluate the impacts of different transition strategies to regenerative agriculture. Our research measures changes in soil health, water regulation, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic viability, providing evidence to determine if regenerative agriculture practices can enhance farm resilience and deliver ecosystem services. Findings from recent extreme weather events - flooding in 2024 and drought in 2025 - highlight that adaptation is a long-term process requiring technical support and financial incentives to ensure a just transition for farmers.