Tag: training

Thomas Kliemt – A farming incubator with a 75% success rate (that nobody knows about) lands in Germany

23rd September 2025 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture, Regenerative Education 0 Comments

A check-in conversation with Thomas Kliemt, a true serial entrepreneur in regenerative farming systems and previously part of Kulturland, always busy with the big topics in agriculture and never afraid to take them on head first. We catch up on what he has been working on: access to land in Germany, how Kulturland- the organization he has been involved with for the last 8 years- has been growing, and why they are suddenly, after 10 years in the making, an overnight success. In the first 6 months of 2025, they accelerated their fundraising by 100%, raising the same €2.5m they raised in all of 2024.

Then we shift to the next piece of the puzzle: once you enable access to land, transition it into the commons as an anti-speculation measure, and remove the huge debt burden new farmers face, who is actually going to farm this land?
That’s what Thomas’ next venture is working to solve, inspired by a highly successful French model. Over the last 20 years, this approach has trained hundreds of farmers in running their businesses through incubator farms: new farmers work their own land for 3 years, run their enterprises, and receive a salary. Afterward, they are ready to take over a farm elsewhere and, remarkably, over 75% of them do. Many of the rest join other farms as employees. This is an incredibly high success rate for any incubator, and the model has already scaled to Belgium, Spain, and Finland. Now Thomas is bringing it to Germany, and the timing seems perfect.

He has already raised several million in government funding, with different regions competing to host these incubator farms. This could become the launchpad for a much stronger regenerative farming movement. We talk about the huge impact successful regenerative farms can have on their regions, the importance of community, and why this mission is so deeply personal for Thomas.

Darren Doherty – 35 years in regeneration training farmers and the role of tech and AI

12th August 2025 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Farmers First Tech, Landscape Design 2.0, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Darren J Doherty, co-founder of Regrarians, in the space of regeneration and regenerating for over 35 years, about the role of technology, AI, and large language models in training farmers and agronomists. We touch on how expensive and too-short workshops are hurting everyone, and why a hybrid model, grounded on the land and in person, combined with much longer online engagement, might be one way to move forward.

We also explore what it means to reinvent yourself after spending years deeply immersed in a project, only to resurface and realise the regenerative world has shifted. Suddenly, you need to work harder to get attention, to find work, and to fill your courses. And yet, there’s so much value in being able to draw on decades of experience and the thousands upon thousands of farmers and land stewards you’ve worked with through times of transition.

We ask why larger corporations haven’t reached out to tap into this expertise: why aren’t they calling about training their farmers or agronomists? It seems we may be exiting the phase of dogmatic pioneers, the era when it had to be permaculture, or holistic management, or keyline design, and entering something more pragmatic. A moment where the focus is shifting toward whatever actually works: on your land, in your human context, and within your market.

Birker, Bösel, Mazzola – The Regenerative Agronomy Gap: who do farmers call?

15th July 2025 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

A conversation with farmer Benedikt Bösel, farmer and regen agronomist Matteo Mazzola and Philippe Birker, co-founder of Climate Farmers. We need regenerative agronomists. Because let’s face it — most farmers trust their agronomist, and the chances that their agronomist is trained in regen are pretty small. We’re moving from the first group of super ambitious, entrepreneurial, and slightly rebellious farmers who have made the transition, to a larger group who want to transition but can take less risk and will need support. So, who do they call when they want to start their transition? Current agriculture schools for agronomists are still very much focused on extractive, highly input- driven agriculture. Farmers often want a checklist and a protocol to “go regen” — but it might be more about asking uncomfortable questions.
So how do we go about changing that? This is three-part conversation today with Philippe Birker, who is setting up the Regen Agronomist Training in Europe, a 6-months intensive training program designed to equip agronomists with practical and theoretical knowledge in regenerative agriculture, with the first pilot happening this year; Benedikt Bösel, farmer at Gut&Bösel, whose farm will serve as a training farm, while sharing his experience with getting help taking his first steps into regen; and Matteo Mazzola, regenerative farmer at Iside, who also works with many others supporting their transition.

Lachy Ritchie on why fixing the agtalent problem is the key to the regen ag revolution

20th December 2019 koenvanseijen Farmers First Tech, Regenerative Agriculture 1 Comment

Lachy Ritchie is the co-founder of Agtalent, a digital marketplace for training, recruitment and expert services in the sustainable and regenerative agriculture sector.