On 9 June 2026, Jane Mills of CCRI joined an event at the European Parliament in Brussels to share evidence on what policymakers can do to help more farmers adopt regenerative and conservation agriculture.
The event, co-hosted by the Institute for European Environmental Policy and the MEP Group on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, brought together representatives from the European Commission, European Parliament, the finance sector and the food industry to learn from the TRAILS4SOIL research project.
Together with Tim Schmid (FiBL), Jane shared insights from TRAILS4SOIL’s workshops across Europe, highlighting key policy enablers and barriers to regenerative and conservation agriculture identified by farmers, businesses and other experts.
Key takeaways from Jane and Tim’s presentation included:
- Transitioning to Regenerative and Conservation Agriculture needs long-term planning, stable funding and robust monitoring.
- Incentives to adopt these approaches must reflect the true costs and risks of change for farmers.
- Policies need to be co-designed with farmers, advisers and experts to be effective and practical.
TRAILS4SOIL is a major 5-year research project investigating the impacts of regenerative and conservation agricultural practices on soil and farmers across 100 working farms in 9 countries of Europe. Funded by the EU and the Swiss State, it produces practical insights for policymakers and farmers to drive the widespread adoption of regenerative and conservation agriculture and support the long-term sustainability and resilience of farming in Europe.
CCRI is one of 22 research and agricultural organisations collaborating on TRAILS4SOIL. CCRI researchers Jane Mills, Charlotte Chivers and Fern Baker are leading efforts to identify and engage key stakeholders—including farmers and other academics—to ensure the project benefits from a wide range of expertise and perspectives.
Together with CCRI’s Michelle Kilfoyle and Kat McGregor, they are also overseeing a comprehensive communications and dissemination strategy to share valuable findings for agricultural policy and practice, and raise public awareness of the benefits of regenerative and conservation agriculture.
Jane Mills is Associate Professor in Agri-Environmental Behaviours at the Countryside & Community Research Institute (CCRI). She specialises in understanding the social and behavioural aspects of agri-environmental policy, sustainable agricultural and environmental management.
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