By 2050, the world’s farmers will need to be able to provide food for nearly 10 billion people, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). Food production would have to increase nearly 50% and require land twice the size of India.
Our farmlands are under strain to produce more and more. At the same time, there is a critical need for food production to lighten its environmental impact. Over the years, intensive farming has degraded soils, strained water resources, produced greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) that have ultimately contributed to the escalation of climate volatility.
In response to this, regenerative agriculture has emerged as an approach that seeks to ecological balance – without limiting productivity.
Although there is no universally accepted definition, regenerative agriculture – informally known as regenag – is fundamentally a rehabilitative approach to farming that makes us rethink how crops are grown and how land is managed. Its practices focus on soil and ecosystem restoration, relying on biological interactions and working with nature rather than against it.
The goal is to achieve sustainable – or better yet, circular – agriculture, because it is not enough just to sustain the land; we must give it life that will benefit generations to come.
Anindya Prima Hadi, director of Gawi Bapakat, Kaleka, told AgTechNavigator that regenag is about “changing behaviours” as the right outcomes can only be achieved when farmers adopt a new mindset and practices.
The drivers of regenerative agriculture vary around the world. In the West, it is often promoted as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while in Asia and Africa, it is seen as a means to support farmers’ livelihoods for the future and strengthen food security.
Investors are increasingly turning their attention to regenerative agriculture, driven by the recent advances in things like soil science, crop science, and biologicals. It is also viewed as a way forward toward sustainable food systems and climate resilience, hence a major opportunity.
“An area gaining real momentum is regenerative agriculture and nature-based solutions. We’re now seeing some truly promising technologies and stronger support emerging in this space. These approaches are critical not only for restoring soil health, but also for improving land productivity,” said Jennifer Yuen, Co-Founder of Further Food & Ag.
“There’s exciting innovation happening, from regenerative farming and sustainable aquaculture to broader nature-positive practices that allow ecosystems to regenerate and contribute to our climate goals… The question now is how we can further strengthen opportunities and influence for farmers in this growing field.”
Shaping tomorrow from the ground up
At the core of regenag is the pursuit of healthy soil, one that is teeming with life such as earthworms and microbes. Improving soil health does not simply boost crops, it is a foundation that increases resilience to disease and climate change, sequesters carbon, and supports biodiversity. By nurturing the soil, we shape the future of farming.
“The way we think about it is as a systems-based approach to farming. The aim of regenerative agriculture is to restore soil health, animal health, and human health — which ultimately leads to improving the planet’s health. The core components can be quite broad, but we start at the farm level, with soil health — prioritising the soil as the foundation for everything else,” said Abhi Agarwal, co-founder of Living Roots, a biologicals firm based in Thailand.
Despite the importance of soil, there seems to be some fundamental facts we have yet to fully understand about it.
Sandrine Claus is the founder and CEO of Starfish Bioscience which aims to restore the soil microbiome with “keystone microbes” with its microbial biostimulants.
Speaking to us, Claus believes that there is still a lot of misconception about the soil microbiome.
“One of the biggest misconceptions that we often hear is that the soil microbes are governed by the crops growing in the soil. But this is true only for the microbes around one of two centimetres around the roots.
“This is because the roots that secrete metabolites that attract these microbes. But in the bulk soil, the microbes are governed by the pH, the oxygen. There’s a need to educate the farmers and the agribusiness industry. We’ve been focused a lot on the rhizosphere and ignoring the bulk microbiomes.”
Overlooking the microbes in the wider soil ecosystem can directly affect crop health and productivity.
“If you don’t restore the microbes in the soil, the plants and their roots can’t access or select the microbes they need,” said Claus.
Biologicals booming
The interest in regenag has driven the growth of biologicals, nature-based biofertilizers, biostimulants, and biocontrols, that aim to reduce the reliance on chemical inputs to help improve soil.
In a previous State of the Sector report on crop protection, biologicals were highlighted as a key part of sustainable agriculture. Though its size dwarfs in comparison to chemical inputs, the awareness as well as the regulatory pressures on the former is fuelling its growth.
Brazil remains the biggest market for biologicals, but Asia Pacific is quickly becoming a promising market to drive their growth.
“The APAC market is one of the fastest-growing globally, expected to outpace more mature markets like Europe and North America. I expect double-digit growth over the next five to 10 years, particularly in biopesticides and biostimulants,” said Peter Wren-Hilton, founder of Wharf42 and the Salinas Biologicals Summit.
“The biologicals sector in APAC has largely followed the technological trajectory first initiated in the US and EU. However, in applied technologies, the region is beginning to carve out its own distinctive path,” said Takeo Kojima, head of agri-innovation unit, Sumitomo Corporation.
“Biologicals are just gaining acceptance in APAC, with limited options currently available for bio-controls. However, the use of bio-stimulants is on the rise, particularly in speciality crops, as growers begin to recognise their potential benefits in improving crop health, resilience, and quality,” said Shoumo Mitra, R&D director, APAC crop protection discovery & development, Corteva Agriscience.
Based in Thailand, Living Roots specialise in high-performance bio-fertilisers made from waste product that were designed to replace chemical inputs entirely. Not only is this more sustainable and healthier for the soil, but the firm also claims to be able to boost crop yields by 30 to 60 per cent.
Recently, Agarwal told this publication it was gearing up for its seed round to support the expansion of its business in South East Asia amid growing demand for its products.
“We’ve had a lot more customer demand that we thought… Across the board what we’re seeing is that it’s the owners that are interested. They are predicting 30% to 40% yield drops in the next two to three decades because of climate change, so they want their farmer bases to be secure in the longer run,” he said.
Agarwal believes that the disruption brought by the US tariffs could play a part in reshaping how farmers think about production costs as conventional inputs become more expensive.
“In a weird way, I think tariffs will help regenag. In my opinion, farmers think a lot about cost, and they will start to think more about cost and what to cut… And in conventional agriculture, there’s no easy way to cut costs without losing yield,” said Agarwal.
He added that in regenerative agriculture, the focus shifts to soil health and encourages more precision in how farmers managing their input with “levers” to make farming more efficient.
This could be strategies such as planting cover crops to improve soil and fix nitrogen, rotating crops for disease control, and applying compost or other organic matter to enhance nutrient retention.
“Conventional inputs in tariff times will increase in price just because of the global complexity of how things work, and the good thing [about regenag] is we can be good about what inputs we’re using and really make that work,” said Agarwal.
Redefining farming: Shifting gears, changing mindsets
Around the world, field trials are making the case for the shift to regenag by demonstrating measurable gains in soil health, productivity, and resilience.
In Indonesia, a regenerative agriculture pilot in Central Kalimantan by Kaleka’s Gawi Bapakat initiative is among those showing early promise. The programme has guided oil palm smallholders in Central Kalimantan away from chemical-heavy inputs in favour of biologicals and organic materials.
It was launched in 2023 across four villages, involved 96 farmers and ten observation plots – six with regenerative interventions and four control plots. A report on its first year revealed that the initiative helped to improve the soil, with early trends showing increases in average nutrient levels and a gradual recovery of overall soil conditions.
“Farmers adopting regenerative practices began to exhibit initial improvements in soil structure, higher organic matter content, and enhanced soil biological health, signalling long-term benefits as the system continues to stabilise.”
The soil also showed signs of more earthworms and beneficial bacterial, indicating that the soil was “more alive and resilient”.
By making their own organic fertilisers, farmers reduced their reliance on chemical inputs, thereby reducing cost while making the soil healthier.
Farmers also reported more consistent harvests, even during dry periods. This was attributed to better soil moisture and nutrient-holding capacity.
The early gains are encouraging, but scaling up the project will be far from straightforward.
Anindya said that for the project to expand and deliver lasting impact, several critical enablers must be strengthened – including farmers’ skills and technical capacity, consistent access to large-scale organic inputs, active stakeholder collaboration, and stronger governance frameworks.
Farmers face the issue of limited availability of organic materials, such as livestock manure, impacting their ability to produce organic fertilisers. This highlights the importance of local production for such inputs.
“Support for filling the knowledge gap on alternative organic input options and soil conditions is needed to enable farmers to choose the most accessible organic input option based on their local conditions,” said Anindya.
She added that changing the farmers’ mindset to farming will be essential for the practices to be adopted long-term.
“Currently, farmers still rely on chemicals to neutralise the soil, but in the future, farmers can be trained to make organic soil conditioners to address this issue. Further, changing farmers’ understanding and behaviour in conventional farming practices is initially difficult, as farmers believe that using high doses of chemical fertilisers will maximise yields.”
Adopting regenag demands a fundamental shift in mindset. Unlike conventional farming, which often prioritises yield and short-term gains, regenerative practices ask farmers to think long-term, to see the soil as a living system rather than an input. This means rethinking everything how success is measured. For many farmers, that transition can be daunting, especially when the results take more time.
Furthermore, regenag does not present itself as a one-size-fits-all solution. This reality poses particular challenges in regions where farming is dominated by fragmented smallholdings and diverse agroecological conditions.
“Regenerative agriculture practices are adapted to the local conditions of farmers, especially in terms of climate, environment, topography, and soil type. In essence, Regenag is not merely a principle but also necessitates adaptive management from farmers as the main actors who persist in acquiring knowledge from their land for the success of shifting the practices,” said Anindya.
Agarwal has observed a lack of knowledge about regenag, not just among farmers, but agronomists and as well.
“The bottleneck is that there’s not enough agronomists and plant scientists trained in regenag. When farmers have questions, there’s no one they can really approach for answers. Comparing to the current type of agriculture, there’s substantial amounts of agronomists and people trained. And that’s fair because all the agronomy training is in conventional farming. There is a gap where you want to do something, but there’s nowhere to go ask questions, which leads to a lot of issues,” he explained.
Incentivising positive change
For farmers, the stakes could not get any higher. With margins already razor-thin, even a single botched season can mean the difference between staying afloat and going under. There is little room for trial and error, which makes experimenting with unfamiliar practices a risky prospect. Regenag’s champions understand that while innovation is necessary, pushing change too quickly could jeopardise farmers’ livelihoods. Finding ways to move towards regenerative methods without asking farmers to shoulder all the risk is a delicate balancing act.
Driving the change will require a joint effort between government agencies, the private sector, as well as other organisations such as non-profits and research institutions. Governments can drive change with the right policies and incentives, corporates can invest in training and market access, while non-profits can bridge gaps on the ground through things like education and community engagement.
Additionally, there are carbon farming projects which are financial incentives for farmers to adopt regenag practices. This projects rewards farmers for their efforts to boost soil carbon sequestration, giving them an additional income stream.
Climate finance company InSoil incentivises farmers to adopt regenerative agricultural practices to support soil carbon sequestration and reduce GHG emissions. In turn, they generate carbon credits, which can be sold to companies seeking credible, traceable climate action beyond their supply chains. Currently, the company has over 700,000 hectares enrolled in its programme and is on track to issue more than four million verified carbon credits by 2027.
“We’re really drivers of change. We work with farmers who are either starting their regenerative journey or looking to begin, and we help them take that step – providing financing when needed and agronomy advice when needed, often both. We address the challenges farmers face when transitioning to regenerative practices… We have people on the ground to answer those questions. And sometimes farmers have the funds to make the transition, but when they don’t, we can provide that capital,” said Fernando Hierro García, senior sustainable business development manager.
Carbon markets have previously been dogged by concerns about accountability and the reliability of their claims. That is changing with tighter regulations and improved oversight. The carbon market is growing stronger with hotspots as well as emerging markets, such as the Middle East.
“Governments are temporary. Policies change, but the impacts of climate change are felt every day, across every industry, particularly in supply chains. That’s why the carbon market is actually picking up pretty well,” said Devdut Dalal, co-founder of Mitti Labs, a firm aiming to reduce methane emissions from rice farming.
Key to climate change?
As a movement, regenag is increasingly gaining traction, especially with emerging evidence that regenag practices can help farms thrive both economically and ecologically. However, it is not without its critics.
While there is evidence that regenerative methods improve soil structure, boost microbial activity, and enhance water retention – all crucial for climate resilience, naysayers question if they can scale beyond the pilots.
A 2020 piece published by WRI questioned whether regenag can really help mitigate climate change.
“Our view is that the practices grouped as regenerative agriculture can improve soil health and yield some valuable environmental benefits but are unlikely to achieve large-scale emissions reductions.”
It elaborated: “The thinking behind regenerative practices as a climate mitigation strategy is to remove carbon dioxide out of the air by storing it as organic carbon in soils. While practices like adding manure can increase soil carbon, the feasibility of scaling such practices over large areas to substantially increase soil carbon and mitigate climate change is much less clear.”
It argued that the real-world potential of regenerative agriculture to sequester carbon remains modest, limited by scientific uncertainty, accounting challenges, and practical constraints.
For instance, it noted that evidence on soil carbon gains were mixed.
“Even putting aside these uncertainties, maintaining enhanced soil carbon levels is practically challenging. For example, in the United States, the vast majority of farmers who practice no-till also plow up their soils at least every few years, reversing most, if not all, of any short-term carbon storage benefit.”
Even if effective practices are identified, scaling them across millions of acres remains a major obstacle. For instance, the piece questioned the potential of expanding the use of cover crops.
“However, while the use of cover crops has been expanding in the United States, they still occupy less than 4% of U.S. cropland and face barriers to wider adoption, such as costs and limited time to establish them before winter begins.”
Regenerative agriculture offers a compelling vision for how farming can feed a burgeoning population without causing more harm to the planet. The path forward will need more than good intentions, but investments, farmer engagement, stronger science, and more alignment between all stakeholders. In a world facing rising climate volatility and mounting food insecurity, the regenag represents not just an option, but a necessity for better future.