Regeneration on the American farm

Regenerative farming practices—such as cover cropping, no-till, and extended crop rotations—are gaining momentum as farmers recognize their role in building a more profitable and resilient operation. Indigo has built the first current, coast-to-coast map for these farming practices, powered by Indigo’s Atlas satellite technology as well as ground and historical agronomic data. The resulting impact on profit and land resiliency was a focus of this 1,498-county, 3.4M-field study from 2017 to 2019, covering 90% of American farmland. This survey will be updated annually and again in 2020.

Economic benefits of enriched soil

By building soil health, farmers can reduce costs, improve crop resilience to damaging or extreme weather, and diversify their portfolios with new financial opportunities (e.g. carbon credits and grazing).

A meta-analysis of 29 land grant and peer-reviewed resources show how no-till and cover crops can collectively increase profitability from $17 to $26 per acre after three years of use, derived from reduced inputs, yield uplifts, and carbon credits. Considering the net return for corn production last year was at a loss of $20.22 per acre (per the USDA), regenerative farming practices can be the difference between losing money and a profitable year.

If every state reached only 15% adoption of cover crops and no-till on its corn, soybean, and wheat acres, those farmers could collectively receive an additional $600 million in profits; the scale of the regenerative opportunity could be as much as $4B if the three practices studied saw widespread implementation.