Regenerative agriculture really works. Data shows that the ability of crops, from planting to harvest, to withstand weather shocks (50-year droughts and floods happening every year, anyone?) correlates very strongly with regenerative agriculture practices. To enable that at scale, MRVs are crucial.
Happy to welcome back on the podcast Anastasia Volkova, co-founder of Regrow Ag, the AI-powered platform to make agriculture resilient, who just made another acquisition. We check in with the MRV pioneer and successful entrepreneur about why they are merging with the leading LATAM player. Last time we talked, five years ago, they had also just merged.
We talk about the current state of the MRV world: who is paying, who isn’t, who is doubling down on remote sensing, and who is investing in resilient agriculture.
What do the current wars everywhere (we are recording this in mid-March ’26, when the Iran war is in full swing) mean for resilient agriculture and the investments needed to unlock it? We also talk- just as we did five years ago- about fertiliser and the double role it plays. In the Global North we can easily cut 70%- yes, 70%- without meaningful yield drops, but in the Global South it’s desperately needed in many places. With the current exploding prices and energy costs, that will be difficult.
We discuss AI and its ability to unlock insights from large (cleaned-up) data sets, and why she is stepping into a more living-systems way of thinking. She’s optimistic that watershed- scale regeneration is almost at our fingertips.
This podcast is part of the AI 4 Soil Health project which aims to help farmers and policy makers by providing new tools powered by AI to monitor and predict soil health across Europe. For more information visit ai4soilhealth.eu.
WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST 5 YEARS
Anastasia was on the podcast in 2021. What has been working well and what hasn’t in the MRV and agricultural resilience space?
“What has worked phenomenally well is the global alignment around the TCO2E as a metric. So, the total tonnes of carbon equivalent that are sequestered or abated – that, to me, is truly phenomenal given how complex this matter is.” — Anastasia Volkova
HOW MRVS HAVE BECOME ALMOST MATURE
The concept of Measurement, Reporting, and Verification has gained global recognition and is now being used by governments to facilitate ecosystem service markets.
“What we have seen also is the recognition of MRV. I was hoping this would be the case, but the fact that this acronym is used by governments all around the world in facilitating the ecosystem service markets is very promising. We’re not the first ones in a small category that we’re building in agriculture and food. We’re now the first ones in the world to use the concept of MRV.” — Anastasia Volkova
WHAT THE CURRENT WARS ARE DOING TO THE FOCUS ON RESILIENT AGRICULTURE
The current multiple global conflicts and their impact on fertiliser prices, with Anastasia expressing particular concern for regions most dependent on imports.
“Now we’re sitting here. We have three wars at the same time. There are the ones that are in the news all the time, there are also dozens that are not in the news all the time, and the fertiliser prices impact the people who are most dependent on them. So, I’m concerned that it’s going to impact Africa the most because this is where fertiliser is imported. This is where it’s needed the most to boost productivity, but it’s not affordable anymore.” — Anastasia Volkova
WE HAVE THE DATA TO SHOW REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE WORKS
People still question whether regenerative practices work, and Anastasia responds with compelling evidence from extreme weather events.
“Every year is a 50-year event; in the last six years, every year we have had an event that has a probability of one in 50 years, and it’s a flood or a drought or a prolonged period or both. And the only fields that are standing, the only ground that you can work and get out onto, are those that are regenerative.” — Anastasia Volkova
HOW AI IS ACCELERATING EVERYTHING
When asked about the pace of change and whether another leap forward is coming in the next few years, Anastasia highlights the transformative impact of recent AI developments on their work.
“Even what we’ve seen in the last four months with the releases of the recent AI models, what they enable us to do and how much faster they’re enabling us to draw insights from our data. This has never been so accessible and so informative because we’ve worked so hard to make sure that data is good, and we continue to work.” — Anastasia Volkova
OTHER POINTS DISCUSSED
Koen and Anastasia also talked about:
- how 50 year weather events are happening every year
- Regrow merges with Platform Puma
- Water and biodiversity credits lagging
LINKS:
LINKED INTERVIEWS:
- Anastasia Volkova on how to monitor whole landscapes and watersheds from space
- Million Belay – Why the USAID shutdown was a gift to agroecology in Africa
- Simon Kraemer – The €120k study showing regenerative agriculture can feed the world
- Chris Tolles – All the venture capital in the world can’t make soils change faster
- Paul Hawken – Carbon is life, not the enemy
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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This work has received funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant numbers 10053484, 1005216, 1006329].
This work has received funding from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
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The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.