From paper industry to regenerative agriculture: Danijela Osap’s return to the roots

A turning point came several years ago, when Danijela was looking for a better use for an organic residue from the paper industry. Around 5,000 tonnes were being sent for incineration each year, even though she was convinced the material could serve another purpose. At the World Circular Economy Forum in Finland, she met someone developing organic fertilisers. Their conversations led to a series of experiments and eventually to a substrate that could be used for growing plants.

“I was really proud of that,” she says. “Through that experience, I became more and more interested in agriculture. In a way, I was coming back to my roots.”

Today, Danijela works on quality management systems, greenhouse gas calculations and emissions-reduction plans. She has also started a PhD in agroecology, with the intention of examining agricultural emissions in Serbia and possible routes towards net zero. These strands came together when her work brought her to LoginEKO, where she was auditing the organisation’s management systems. Through that connection, she was offered the opportunity to join the Lighthouse Farm Academy Lab in Serbia.

Although she was already familiar with some of the subjects discussed during the programme, the Lab helped her see them as part of a much wider system. What stood out most was the variety of people around the table: farmers, policymakers, researchers, representatives of non-governmental organisations and professionals from education.

“You need different views and different experiences to bring all the pieces together,” Danijela says. “The processes are complex, so you cannot look at them from only one perspective.”

One of the most useful exercises asked participants to explore how a conventional farming system might move towards regenerative agriculture. For Danijela, it made the practical consequences of such a transition particularly clear.

Changing one part of a farming system quickly affects many others. Farmers may need new knowledge, machinery, partnerships and financial resources, while the benefits may only become visible after several years. This is why Danijela is wary of presenting regenerative agriculture as a simple set of practices that can be adopted overnight.

“There is no sustainability without financial sustainability,” she says. “Farmers need to believe that the transition will eventually be positive for nature and for their business, but they also need the financial possibility to survive the years before the results arrive.”

That issue is especially pressing in Serbia. Danijela says the country has experienced several years without sufficient rainfall, leaving farmers to manage losses and uncertainty even before considering major changes to the way they work. In those circumstances, asking individual farmers to carry the full risk of a transition is unlikely to be realistic.

For her, that also explains why policymakers need to be part of programmes such as the Lighthouse Farm Academy. Policy can help bridge the period between investing in change and seeing its benefits. Farmers bring essential practical knowledge, but lasting change will also require support from government, education, research and other parts of the food system.

The Serbia Lab has also given Danijela ideas for her own future. She recently became the steward of part of her family's land. and would eventually like to develop it using regenerative practices. She is still at the beginning and does not yet know exactly what form the farm will take, but she imagines it as both a working farm and a place where others can learn.

Working at a small scale brings its own challenges. Danijela doubts whether individual smallholders can easily invest in all the equipment and expertise they need. One possibility she is considering is forming a cluster in which farmers share machinery, knowledge and experience.

She also plans to encourage her uncle, who farms around 3,000 hectares conventionally to explore regenerative practices. Rather than changing everything at once, she sees an opportunity to start with one part of the farm and observe what happens.

“I think we can do something, but slowly,” she says. “Starting with one part would allow us to see what it brings.”

Danijela believes the Lighthouse Farm Academy can be valuable to farmers, even though it is not designed as a technical training programme with instructions that can immediately be copied in the field. Its value lies in exposing participants to different approaches, helping them see new possibilities and bringing their practical experience into conversation with people working in other parts of the system.

She would also like to help make the Lighthouse Farm Academy better known in Serbia. Interest in regenerative agriculture is growing, she says, but many professionals in the region are not yet aware of the programme or the international examples behind it.

Danijela left the Lab with no single formula for transforming agriculture. Instead, she gained a clearer understanding of the conditions that make change possible: practical knowledge, collaboration, patient experimentation and enough financial security to manage the transition.

“It takes time, knowledge, money and different approaches,” she says. “But seeing examples from different parts of the world shows that change is possible.”