Rockefeller | Regen10 grounding the global conversation on scaling regenerative agriculture.
A series of research reports produced for the Rockefeller Foundation in the context of Regen10’s early work, focused on what makes regenerative agriculture viable for smallholder farmers, how it can scale, and how diversified cropping can change farm economics.
Delivered under the Terra Genesis banner, the work contributed grounded research and field-informed perspective at a moment when global regenerative agriculture frameworks were still taking shape. The focus was practical: what has to be true for regenerative agriculture to work commercially for smallholders, not only ecologically or conceptually.
A global movement was forming. It needed grounded answers.
By the early 2020s, regenerative agriculture had moved quickly into corporate commitments, development funding, and investment agendas. But the term was still being stretched in different directions: sometimes reduced to a list of practices, sometimes narrowed to soil health, and sometimes treated mainly as a carbon strategy.
Underneath the definitional uncertainty was a deeper question of fit. Much of the global conversation around scaling regenerative agriculture was shaped around larger commercial systems, while smallholder farmers faced different realities around land size, labor, market access, risk, crop diversity, finance, and household economics.
The Rockefeller Foundation needed grounded research on the questions sitting underneath the global conversation: what makes regenerative agriculture viable for smallholders, what enables it to scale, and how diversified cropping can affect farm economics and resilience.
Turned a broad global question into grounded research outputs.
Working under the Terra Genesis banner, the role was to produce a series of research reports that could help clarify what regenerative agriculture means, how diversified smallholder systems can become commercially viable, and what scaling looks like beyond simple replication.
Established a defensible definition
Situated regenerative agriculture inside a broader paradigm of regeneration, distinguishing it from reductive framings based only on practices, soil health, or carbon, and articulating principles that could apply across contexts.
Grounded the definition in working origins
Connected the conceptual work to real smallholder and supply-system contexts, including origins in Thailand rubber, Haiti cotton, and Ecuador cacao, so that the definition was informed by practical field realities.
Mapped diversification pathways
Assessed secondary crops across regions and market types, looking at crop suitability, market opportunity, climate risk, and the role of diversified production in farm economics and resilience.
Built the market case
Developed market-pathway logic, crop memos, and supporting analysis so that diversification could be understood as an economic strategy, not only an ecological or agronomic recommendation.
Reframed scaling
Challenged the assumption that scaling simply means replication, using a three-mode model: Extend more farmers and hectares, Expand into new crops and markets, and Evolve new forms of value.
Translated research into strategic inputs
Organized the findings into practical report outputs that could support funders, coalitions, and field-building actors working to shape regenerative agriculture frameworks with smallholders in view.
Three reports connecting definition, diversification, and scale.
The work resulted in a focused research series on the practical questions behind scaling regenerative agriculture with smallholder farmers: what the term means, how diversified systems can strengthen farm economics, and how scaling can happen without collapsing back into monoculture logic.
Defining regenerative agriculture
A foundational report distinguishing regenerative agriculture from reductive framings based only on practices, soil health, or carbon, and setting out principles grounded in working smallholder origins.
Diversification and market pathways
A four-region analysis of secondary crops across export, experimental, local, and subsistence markets, with crop memos, market-pathway logic, and a compendium of crop suitability and yield considerations.
Scaling strategy for smallholders
A strategy report reframing scale through three modes: Extend more farmers and hectares, Expand into new crops and higher-value markets, and Evolve new forms of value.
Grounded input for a field still defining its terms.
A more rigorous line between regeneration and greenwashing.
The definitional work helped clarify regenerative agriculture as a systems-oriented paradigm, not just a list of practices, a soil-health program, or a carbon strategy.
An economic case for diversified smallholder systems.
The diversification research translated an ecological principle into market and farm-economics logic, showing how secondary crops can contribute to resilience, income pathways, and transition strategy.
A scaling model that kept smallholders at the center.
The scaling work offered an alternative to simple replication: a way to think about growth through farmer participation, market expansion, and new forms of value without defaulting to industrial monoculture.
Global frameworks are only as useful as the realities they are built from.
Regenerative agriculture was entering a field-building moment: attracting capital, shaping institutional agendas, and becoming part of how companies and funders talked about the future of food systems. But without grounded smallholder evidence, the language of regeneration risked becoming too abstract, too practice-based, or too disconnected from farmer livelihoods.
This series helped bring practical smallholder realities into that conversation. It connected definition, diversification, and scale to the conditions that determine whether regenerative agriculture can work in real farming systems: land constraints, crop choices, market access, household economics, institutional support, and the ability to create value beyond a single commodity.
The value was not only in answering a research brief. It was in helping translate field experience into the language, benchmarks, and strategy used by institutions working at scale.
Delivered under the Terra Genesis banner, the work sits in the Regenerates lineage of research, strategy, and smallholder-system thinking: holding the practical realities of farmers, origins, and diversified production systems inside larger conversations about regenerative transition.
Start with the evidence that moves the field.
Start with the question your strategy, coalition, or supply-system work actually turns on, and get research grounded in what works on the ground. We bring field experience to the frameworks that shape how regenerative agriculture scales.