Key Highlights:

• A Grant Thornton Bharat-USIBC report says regenerative agriculture is moving beyond pilot projects in India.
• About one-third of India's land area, nearly 115-120 million hectares, is estimated to be degraded.
• India loses 4.8-5.3 billion tonnes of soil and nearly 8 million tonnes of plant nutrients annually.
• The regenerative agriculture sector was valued at approximately $62 million in 2025, growing via government, private and carbon-credit support.
• Scalable models are already emerging in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

A Practical Pathway Amid Growing Land Degradation

Regenerative agriculture is emerging as a practical pathway to restore soil health and strengthen India's agricultural resilience, as land degradation increasingly threatens the country's food security, according to a report released on Tuesday. The joint report, prepared by Grant Thornton Bharat and the US-India Business Council (USIBC), argued that regenerative agriculture is now moving beyond isolated pilot projects to become a genuinely practical pathway toward more climate-resilient farming systems across India.

The Scale of India's Land Degradation Challenge

The report highlighted the severity of the underlying problem driving this shift. About one-third of the country's land area, or nearly 115-120 million hectares, is estimated to be degraded, directly threatening agricultural productivity across large swathes of the country. Soil erosion remains a particularly significant challenge, with an estimated 4.8 to 5.3 billion tonnes of soil lost annually, along with nearly 8 million tonnes of plant nutrients, a scale of loss that has direct implications for long-term crop yields and farmer livelihoods if left unaddressed.

Why This Scale of Degradation Matters

The sheer volume of soil and nutrient loss each year represents not just an environmental concern but a mounting economic and food security risk. Degraded land typically requires greater inputs, in the form of fertilisers, water and other resources, to sustain comparable yields, creating a cycle where farmers face rising costs even as the underlying productive capacity of their land continues to decline. This dynamic underscores why the report frames regenerative agriculture not merely as an environmental initiative, but as an economically necessary response to a structural threat facing Indian agriculture.

A Growing Sector With Multiple Sources of Support

According to the report, regenerative agriculture in India was valued at approximately $62 million in 2025, and is expanding with support from a combination of government initiatives, private-sector investment and emerging carbon-credit programmes. This mix of funding sources suggests that the sector's growth is not reliant on any single driver, but is instead being supported through a diversified set of incentives spanning public policy, private capital and newer market mechanisms tied to carbon sequestration.

Where Scalable Models Are Already Taking Shape

The report noted that scalable regenerative agriculture models are already emerging in several states, including Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The geographic spread of these early adopters, cutting across different agro-climatic zones and farming traditions, suggests that regenerative practices are proving adaptable across varied regional contexts rather than being confined to a narrow set of conditions.

Technology's Role in Accelerating Adoption

Technology is expected to play a critical role in accelerating the broader adoption of regenerative agriculture practices. Artificial intelligence, IoT-enabled sensors, satellite imagery, remote sensing, blockchain and precision agriculture tools are all cited as tools helping farmers improve resource efficiency, strengthen traceability, and make more informed decisions about their land management practices. This technological layer is particularly significant for regenerative agriculture, since demonstrating measurable outcomes, such as improved soil carbon levels or water-use efficiency, often requires more precise monitoring and data collection than traditional farming methods have typically relied upon.

Barriers to Large-Scale Adoption

Despite this growing momentum, the report was clear that large-scale adoption will require overcoming several structural challenges. These include fragmented landholdings, which can complicate the coordinated implementation of regenerative practices across contiguous areas, as well as transition costs that many smaller farmers may struggle to absorb, limited technical awareness among farming communities, and still-evolving carbon-market frameworks that have yet to provide fully mature financial incentives for regenerative practices.

Recommendations for Scaling the Transition

To address these barriers, the report recommended stronger public-private collaboration, greater investment in traceability technologies, improved access to finance for farmers making the transition, enhanced agricultural research systems, and the development of a unified national framework to support measurable gains across soil health, water-use efficiency, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. This call for a unified national framework in particular suggests that the report's authors see current efforts as still somewhat fragmented across states and programmes, lacking the kind of standardised approach that could accelerate adoption at a national scale.

Industry Perspective on the Opportunity

Commenting on the report's findings, Prof. Padmanand V, Partner and Agriculture Industry Leader at Grant Thornton Bharat, framed the moment as a pivotal one for Indian agriculture. "India stands at a defining moment in its agricultural transformation. Regenerative agriculture offers an opportunity to enhance productivity and quality while restoring soil health, strengthening climate resilience and improving farmer livelihoods," he said.

What It Will Take to Realise This Potential

Padmanand was equally clear about the scale of coordination required to fully capture this opportunity. "Realising this potential will require coordinated action across policy, technology, finance, advisory services and value chains. With the right ecosystem of incentives, innovation and partnerships, India can build a more sustainable, competitive and future-ready agricultural sector that delivers benefits for farmers, consumers and the planet," he added, framing regenerative agriculture's success as contingent not on any single intervention, but on a broad, coordinated effort spanning multiple stakeholders across India's agricultural value chain.