What Is An Agronomic Strategy AND Why Does It Matter for Scaling Regenerative Ag?
Jun 19
5 min read
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Executive Summary / TL;DR
Who This Article Is For
This piece is designed for professionals working in the regenerative ag, bio-based products, and soil health space who are responsible for product development, commercial deployment, go-to-market strategy, agronomic support, or farmer engagement.
Roles may include leaders in:
Product Managment, Strategy, Agronomy Sales, Support/ Enablement, and more
Summary
You’ve built or launched a promising regenerative or biological solution — but adoption is slower than expected. Why?
This article makes the case that before investing more resources, your team needs to revisit (or develop) a strong agronomic strategy. One that aligns your product’s promise with how real farmers actually make decisions.
Inside, you'll learn five key questions to help evaluate product-market fit from the farmer's perspective:
What’s the Farmer’s WHY? – Are you solving their real problems, not just yours?
Do They Understand HOW It Works? – Clarity and ease drive adoption.
Is It Practical to Implement? – If it’s too complicated, even a solid ROI won’t save it.
Are You Targeting the Right Region? – Adoption zones matter. Tools like the FARM Index can help.
Are You Solving for Adoption... or Hoping for It? – Adoption is earned, not assumed.
The takeaway: Products that thrive are those that fit the farmer’s system, build trust, and deliver value without friction. Without a clear agronomic strategy, even the best solutions can stall.
Agronomic Strategy: The Missing Link in Scaling Regenerative Ag/Product Success
Are you working on launching a regenerative or biologically based solution that shows real promise BUT isn’t gaining the traction you expected?
Are you wondering why?
Before you invest more resources, it's crucial to make sure you’re not missing a key piece of the puzzle: your agronomic strategy.
An agronomic strategy isn’t just choosing which product to sell or where to sell it, it’s framing your solution to align with the real-world context in which it will be used.
This context includes:
✅ The farmer’s goals and routines — What problems are they trying to solve?
✅ The trusted advisors who influence their decisions — Who do they listen to?
✅ The local agronomic conditions such as baseline soil health, climate pressures, cropping practices — all of which may aid or undermine your product’s performance.
✅ The financial pressures and incentives — Will your solution ease financial stress or enable greater profits?
An agronomic strategy considers the WHY, WHAT, HOW, and WHERE. It aligns business goals with customer motivations and challenges. It makes adoption easy without costing the farmer additional time, and it shows you where it fits into their operation and their routines.
A strong agronomic strategy is a must for successful deployment. Here are 5
questions I believe every product team should ask before entering the field:
What’s the Farmer’s WHY?
What pain point are you actually solving AND is it their pain point, not just yours?
Does your solution make something easier, more affordable, more resilient, or better aligned with their soil, crop health, profitability, their routines, or their values?
Sometimes companies solve problems that aren’t the most pressing ones for farmers. It’s crucial to identify the low-hanging fruit and the problems that matter most for the greatest number of operations.
This guarantees your solution resonates and is valued by the grower.
Do They Understand HOW It Works?
Does the grower AND their trusted agronomist or advisor understand application timing, compatibility, and placement?
If it’s not intuitive, it’s not getting adopted. Clarity builds confidence.
Understanding HOW it works is critical for both product-development and eventual customer satisfaction.
Consider the questions your growers and their advisors are asking NOT just the data you’re collecting for your own understanding and use those to demonstrate how your solution directly solves their problems.
Is It Practical to Implement?
Practical implementation is a major sticking point. This is where many products lose grower interest. If it's not an easy install, a simple add-on, or a smooth process, you’re adding complexity instead of adding value.
Consider:
✅When is it best applied
✅ The compatibility with their equipment and routines
✅ The ability to stack synergistically with other practices or products
✅ The delivery, storage, handling, and application process
✅ The additional time or resources it might require and account for these in your return-on-investment estimates (so you’re realistic)
I’ve been there with many growers, choosing not to move forward with a product simply because it was too cumbersome or confusing to implement even though the ROI was reasonable. Build the right expectations up front to avoid frustrating calls and lost sales later.
Are You Targeting the Right Region?
Where are farmers most ready for your solution?
Tools like the FARM Index can help identify zones where grower mindset, agronomic need, and soil health pressures align — and keep you from wasting resources in low-fit areas.
When you identify high-adoption likelihood, you enable a ripple effect as farmers talk to their neighbors, collaborate, and learn from each other.
Go to where there’s momentum, and you can unlock the power of grassroots promotion while honoring their unique context.
Are You Solving for Adoption... or Hoping for It?
Adoption doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a product fits the system it’s entering, when data supports its use, and when trusted voices reinforce its credibility.
It’s about building relationships and delivering a tool that farmers can count on time and time again instead of focusing on a quick sale.
It’s about building relationships and delivering a tool/ solution farmers can count on season after season, not just pushing for a quick sale.
As someone once said (and I’ve found it to be true): “Farmers want relationships, not transactions.”
How about you? Is your strategy meeting farmers where they are and building trust from the first conversation?
At Living Roots, we help regenerative and biologically based product teams translate technical potential into real-world results by framing their products to align with:
✅ The farmer’s context and routines
✅ The region’s agronomic conditions and resource concerns
✅ The financial incentives or barriers to adopting a new practice
✅ The decision-making framework used by farmers and their trusted advisors
✅ The data signals, provided by the FARM Index, to maximize your reach and resources
Whether you’re developing your product, extending your reach, or wondering why growth is stalling, a strong agronomic strategy isn’t optional; it’s foundational.
Feeling stuck or seeing slower-than-expected traction?
Start by asking these five questions OR reach out to talk through where you’re at.
Let's save tomorrow’s soils today.
