Climate opportunities: Agroecology

Inequity and vulnerabilities in India’s food systems

Source: TEEB for Agriculture & Food, UNEP,2018

Employing nearly half of India’s population, the resilience of India’s agriculture sector is key to its development. However, it is under threat from several angles. 

Modern agriculture practices, including excessive reliance on chemical inputs and monocropping, have pushed farmers into crisis, especially small and marginal farmers who comprise the majority. They face high input costs, low land productivity, and depleting groundwater resources and natural ecosystems. Socio-economic challenges like the informal nature of the sector, high indebtedness, and limited access to formal credit, have acted on these factors to trap farmers in a vicious cycle of poverty. This has also made agriculture unattractive and unprofitable for rural youth, accelerating urban migration. 

The climate crisis is further impacting these livelihoods. Small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural workers, and tribal farmers are the most vulnerable. Women farmers are even more vulnerable, given their limited ability to migrate when faced with risks.  

Food insecurity is also a major concern. Disruptions in monsoon patterns, floods, high winds, heatwaves, and droughts are leading to significant losses due to the prevalence of rainfed agriculture. Rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are also increasing the spread of pests, causing declines in livestock productivity, and reducing the nutritional quality of produce. Impacted by these factors, India’s production in 2050 is expected to decline by 3-14% across produce varieties, with repercussions on food prices for consumers.  

These vulnerabilities are numerous, complex, and systemic. How can farmers strengthen their livelihoods, ensure food and nutrition security, adapt to a changing climate, and restore ecosystems, while mitigating emissions? 

Building climate resilience through agroecology 

Agroecology is a scientific and interdisciplinary approach to farming that applies ecological principles to agriculture. Sometimes referred to as natural farming or regenerative agriculture, it looks at food systems as a continuum – including environmentally-friendly farm practices, the circular use of resources, justice and economic development for smallholder and women farmers, local governance, and knowledge-sharing among producer communities. It transcends beyond the farm to influence large-scale shifts in food systems, by bringing together a wide range of stakeholders. 

This approach is already gaining policy momentum under the Government of India’s leadership, through Viksit Bharat 2047, the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, and the National Mission on Natural Farming. The Economic Survey 2025 also calls for reforms to encourage farmers to diversify from input intensive crops that deplete water and soil resources and rely heavily on chemicals. 

However, there are a few challenges to scaling agroecology in India. For example, it is critical for farmers to be sufficiently supported as they transition to regenerative agriculture practices. There is also a need to build evidence for working models across India’s agroecological regions; align stakeholders around a common roadmap; integrate programmes, schemes, and initiatives at a landscape level; and coordinate long-term funding for initiatives.

What can philanthropists do to support India’s climate goals? 

Philanthropy can help India’s food system become resilient and advance climate progress through several pathways, a few of which are highlighted below:

• By building an evidence base for agroecology: 
  The Bharat Agroecology Fund (BAF) is a pooled grant fund committed to mainstreaming and scaling agroecological solutions across India, towards non-chemical, non-extractive food systems.  
  
  SUGAM CSS is an initiative to scale up green micro-cold storage solutions for agri-value chains in India. This envisions that farmers cultivating perishable produce have access to affordable and sustainable cooling, thus reducing food waste, increasing farmer incomes, and reducing emissions. This is a cluster-based, multi-donor, multi-partner approach that adopts multiple levers – across technology, policy, finance, and capacity building. 
   
• By coalescing actors to scale agroecology through a landscape-level approach:   
  The Consortium for Agroecological Transformations (CAT) seeks to enable a systemic shift towards an equitable and resilient food system through agroecology in India. It envisions a multi-stakeholder model that promotes a farmer-centric, landscape-level approach. In the next decade, the goal is to enable 40 million small and marginal farmers to transition to agroecology-based practices, while generating multiple biodiversity and climate outcomes, and ecosystem services.

The above examples represent a small set of solutions that the ICC has supported. Write to solutions@indiaclimatecollaborative.org to learn more about solutions like BAF and CAT in India, and partner with us and other ecosystem actors.