Nuffield Scholar Jakub Gawcki finds no single model for regenerative farming
17/09/2026
Polish 2024 Nuffield Scholar Jakub Gawcki has released his research report on regenerative agriculture, drawn from visits to farms, research stations and advisory services across nine countries and four continents.
His study asked a practical question: how do farmers in very different climates, soils and farm structures actually apply regenerative principles, and what transfers back to Poland? To answer it, he travelled to Brazil, Texas, Germany, Ireland, Romania, the Netherlands, France, England, Scotland, Wales and Australia -- 26 flights and around 20,000 kilometres by road.
His central finding is that regenerative agriculture is not a single technology to be adopted, but a set of connected decisions about soil management, cover crops, cultivation, and the integration of cropping and livestock. There is no universal model. Practices that work in one region do not reliably transfer to another, even where soils and climate look similar.
Farm scale proved to be the strongest determinant of how those decisions are made. In the large-area systems of Brazil, Texas and parts of Australia, no-till is a fully operating system rather than a trial, and the economics rest on lower cost per hectare across a large area rather than maximum yield per hectare. In the smaller European holdings of Poland, the Netherlands and France, regenerative practices more often begin on single fields, tested and observed before being extended. The trade-off is risk: a small grower can correct a mistake cheaply, while at scale a single agronomic error carries across the whole business.
Jakub also found that weather remains the decisive variable in every system he visited. Regenerative management does not remove that risk, but by improving soil structure, water retention and biological activity it reduces the damage a bad season does. On that basis he argues soil carbon should be read primarily as an indicator of management quality, not only as a climate metric.
The report notes that market demand shapes how far farmers go. Where consumers and food companies recognise and pay for regenerative production, it becomes part of a value-adding strategy; where they do not, cost reduction remains the only motivation.
His recommendations are that practices be matched to local soil, climate, scale and terrain; that change be introduced gradually and flexibly; that cropping and livestock be integrated where conditions allow; that investment continue in farmer education and advisory services; that effects be monitored and decisions adapted; and that markets for sustainable food be developed so regenerative production is properly valued.
Jakub works as a specialist in biological inputs and regenerative agriculture at the Terra Nostra Foundation for Agricultural Development, advising farmers across Poland, and is a graduate of the University of Life Sciences in Wrocaw.
His scholarship was supported by Top Farms Group.
[Read the full report -- https://www.nuffieldscholar.org/reports?country=All&search=&name=jakub+gawecki&year=]
