Join agronomists and certified crop advisors across North America to empower and scale regenerative agriculture.
About the Program
Mapping Adoption Practices
Soil health management incentives - both public and private - rely on monitored and quantifiable changes in conservation practice adoption. Regrow utilizes OpTIS, our remote sensing algorithm, to make monitoring globally scalable. We also use ground-truth data to validate the accuracy of this technology.
Together, we work to effectively track the adoption of conservation practices.
Get Involved
We rely on observations from agronomists, certified crop advisors and other agricultural experts to ensure accurate and robust data collection. If you are an expert and would like to contribute, fill out an application on this page. If you’d like to learn more about this program and the work it supports, check out our 2021 webinar hosted by Tri-Societies.
How It’s Done
The Sustainability Watch program is part of an ongoing public-private partnership between Regrow, The Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Technology Information Center, and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. In this program, we use OpTIS to map sustainable practice adoption and support our findings with ground-truth data.
How Remote Sensing Empowers Conservation Efforts
Remote Sensing
Regrow maps changes in adoption rates of sustainable and regenerative farming practices, including no-till and reduced-till farming, cover cropping, and crop rotation. We map these changes across the United States using a remote sensing algorithm. After mapping tillage practices and cover cropping, we apply a soil and crop model to the data to investigate the soil health and environmental outcomes associated with these changes.
Farmer Support
Results from across the corn belt, mapped by Regrow and partners at TNC and CTIC, indicate areas that saw increases in conservation practice adoption rates and suggest beneficial soil health outcomes. Regrow has now expanded sustainability practice mapping across the continental United States and Canada, as can be seen in the map below.
Companies, policymakers and stakeholders across the supply chain can use this aggregate information to facilitate the adoption of sustainable farming practices, find opportunities to partner with sustainable farmers and identify investment opportunities for the future.
Project Expansion
During last year’s Sustainability Watch Program we received 360 field observations. This year, we’re expanding our reach to several regions across the U.S. and Canada, including:
U.S. Midwest
U.S. Mid-Atlantic
U.S. Great Plains
Canada Great Plains
Since 2017, we’ve collected 10,000 surveys on fields across the United States and Canada. This year, our expanded program will provide more actionable data to farmers, advisors and those working to support sustainable farming practices in the regions chosen. Regrow is also offering the opportunity for consultants to sign a contract for annual participation, which would expand our research footprint and allow you to contribute to research across multiple growing seasons.
The Sustainability Watch Process
We are looking for accredited agronomists, soil and water conservation agents, or Certified Crop Consultants interested in joining our Sustainability Watch partnership. Getting the job done is as easy as completing four simple steps.
Sign onto the Sustainability Watch team. We’ll collect the documents necessary to compensate for your efforts.
Download the Sustainability Watch app on your iPad, iPhone or Android.
Survey 20-30 fields within driving distance & complete a simple survey regarding tillage practices and cover crops.
Submit a single invoice after your last visit, and you’ll receive payment for your efforts.
What You'll Receive
PaymentWe provide stipends for data collectors conducting roadside surveys. We ask each data collector to perform up to 6 roadside surveys within their counties between November and July.
TrainingWe provide data collectors with an introductory project overview and mobile app training. You’ll learn how to accept assignments, collect observations and take pictures of fields to ensure high quality data collection and a smooth experience.
SupportYou’ll always have support staff on hand to answer questions or provide guidance. Our customer support team is experienced with data collection efforts, and is here to help.
PrivacyWe take data privacy seriously. We do not ask you to provide any information about your clients. Rather, you’ll visit a set of random fields in your area to help us validate satellite observations.
Want to contribute to the future of resilient agriculture?
Get paid to monitor sustainable practice adoption on fields in your county, from the comfort of your vehicle. Together, we can make conservation practices more accessible and help growers earn payments for their efforts.
