Agricultural Extension for Regenerative Agriculture: A Review of Adoption Drivers and Economic Outcomes

Abstract

Regenerative agriculture has moved from a niche philosophy to a mainstream policy objective, promoted by governments, agribusiness and multilateral institutions as a pathway toward soil restoration, climate mitigation and resilient farm incomes. Yet adoption remains uneven, and the agricultural extension and advisory systems tasked with disseminating regenerative knowledge are themselves undergoing considerable change, from top-down technology transfer toward participatory, networked and increasingly digital models. This review synthesises peer-reviewed evidence on the drivers of farmer adoption of regenerative practices and the economic outcomes associated with that adoption, with particular attention to the role played by extension and advisory services. Farmer decisions are shown to be shaped jointly by economic considerations, values and risk perception, social learning within peer networks, and the institutional design of extension delivery, including farmer field schools, farmer-to-farmer models and digital advisory platforms. Economic outcomes during the transition period are frequently negative or highly variable, with profitability recovering, and in some contexts exceeding conventional baselines, only after several seasons of stabilisation. Policy instruments such as agri-environmental payments and carbon markets can support adoption but face persistent problems of additionality, administrative burden and inadequate remuneration. Gender and resource disparities continue to constrain equitable access to extension services in many low- and middle-income settings. The review concludes that extension effectiveness for regenerative transitions depends less on any single delivery mechanism than on the alignment between advisory content, farmer risk-bearing capacity and complementary financial support during the transition window.