Smallholder farmers provide a third of the world’s food, yet they are often exploited by middlemen. In India, the Save Soil Regenerative Agriculture Programme is engineering a new system to help farmers transition to regenerative farming, while connecting them with local businesses and consumers.

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As a farmer myself, I understand the struggles of smallholder farming first-hand. For the 570 million smallholder farmers worldwide, profits are becoming increasingly precarious. Between increasingly erratic weather patterns, water stress and soil erosion, a solid harvest is no longer inevitable. 

That has to change. Today, many farmers have no choice but to borrow from tomorrow’s harvests to provide food today. This is because the middlemen, and the markets who drive them, favor bulk produce. But bulk produce demands intensive, fertilizer-heavy mono-crop farming practices. Practices that do not just erode our soils, but also the stability of our future food systems. 

Soil health has implications for everyone, not just for farmers. Fortunately, we can replenish soil health by making regenerative farming the profitable option for farmers. In the process, we can also replenish human health by making organic produce affordable for the global middle class. 

To accelerate the transition to regenerative farming, we have to build a fairer, healthier, more accessible market. By allowing farmers to sell directly to consumers, we create a virtuous cycle; we can increase profit for the seller while reducing the price for the buyer. 

At the Save Soil Regenerative Agriculture Programme in India, we are building a new type of market for organic, regeneratively-grown food. What we are building in India could be used as a blueprint for scaling regenerative agriculture markets across the world. 

Ultimately, pivoting to regenerative practices is more profitable for the farmer in the long run. It reduces the need to invest in heavy tillage machinery, pesticides, and fertilizers. 

Regardless of their profitability, farmers making the transition to regenerative practices face many hurdles. 

The first is education. Practices like crop rotation, agroforestry, and bio-input preparation need to be taught. Along with in-person training, we have set up a hotline where farmers can call for instant advice on how to pivot to regenerative farming. 

The next is market access. Traditionally, small farmers rely heavily on middlemen. These middlemen often have an unfair advantage over farmers. Middlemen often have monopolies on supply chains and better access to accurate market price information. This enables them to manipulate prices, which further cuts into what are already razor-thin margins. This trend is not unique to India; it has been reported everywhere from Nigeria to the United States. 

Our model addresses this by enabling farmers to sell directly to consumers, allowing them to retain a greater portion of their earnings. By reducing reliance on middlemen, farmers are incentivized to adopt regenerative practices as they know they can get a fair price. 

Of course, regenerative farming and organic produce remain a fringe phenomenon at the country level, so eliminating middlemen entirely may not be feasible. However, by selling a greater share of produce to local communities, restaurants and businesses, we can allow farmers to diversify their clients, therefore reducing reliance on the exploitative practices of middlemen. 

This model not only allows farmers to sell produce at a fair price. It grants local people access to organic food that would otherwise be far more expensive in supermarkets. 

Currently, our pilot phase in Coimbatore involves approximately 100 regenerative farmers supplying produce directly to the Isha Yoga Center. This center provides daily natural food to around 4,000 residents, demonstrating a sustainable market. Farmers receive a 10-15% premium above conventional market prices. 

This model is scalable, as demonstrated by our progress across Tamil Nadu. Approximately 9,000 farmers have already transitioned to regenerative methods. We are also developing a digital platform and a network of WhatsApp groups to connect regenerative farmers to consumers, restaurants, and institutions. 

Another hurdle comes in the form of certification. High-premium organic produce requires a form of third-party certification, a process typically too costly and complicated for small-scale farmers. Instead, our model leverages the trust of local people with the farmers in their own community. This approach allows farmers to obtain premium prices without the significant burden of formal certification, therefore streamlining their path to market.

Despite our initial success, notable challenges remain. These include digital literacy gaps among rural farmers, logistical complexities in distribution, and resistance from entrenched market interests that benefit from the existing agricultural systems. 

Our structured support system helps farmers overcome these hurdles.

What sets this initiative apart is its emphasis on grassroots empowerment. While boosting soil health remains crucial, this program is about far more than that. It is about revitalizing rural economies, boosting human health and, ultimately, creating a sustainable market for naturally grown food. 

We are also proving the widely popularized claim that regenerative agriculture cannot feed an entire nation to be untrue. The farmers enrolled in the program are taking yields that match, and often surpass, those taken by conventional farms. Once the government understands this, and provides regenerative farmers with the same level of subsidy support received by conventional farmers, then we can prove that regenerative farming can provide a firm food foundation for India. 

Ultimately, creating robust, accessible markets is essential for the widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture. Our experience in Coimbatore and broader Tamil Nadu has proven that with the right support, small-scale farming does not have to be a precarious way to make a living. 

84% of the world’s farms are small holdings, and they provide a third of the world’s food. By creating economically attractive conditions for regenerative agriculture, we can foster a sustainable transformation in global farming practices, benefiting farmers, consumers, and the environment alike.

This model, rooted in the success we have seen in Tamil Nadu, could be scaled across the globe. Countries with similar smallholder farming dynamics, like Kenya, Indonesia, and Peru, stand to benefit from a model that combines farmer training, direct-to-consumer sales, and a supportive digital ecosystem. 

In East Africa, where erratic rainfall and soil degradation threaten food security, regenerative methods such as agroforestry and composting could restore fertility and stabilize farmer yields. In Southeast Asia, where rice monoculture dominates, diversification through crop rotation and organic practices could provide more resilient soils and incomes. In Latin America, where many rural farmers struggle with market access, platforms that bypass intermediaries can level the playing field and revive local economies. This model can be adapted to local contexts while keeping the core principles of farmer empowerment, market access, and community trust intact. 

Ultimately, regenerative farming does not just heal the land. It could deliver a healthier, more equitable food system worldwide. If we are to make regenerative agriculture the global norm, we cannot just focus on the ecological benefits. We need to create a compelling economic case for both farmers and consumers.

The post Want to Make Regenerative Farming Mainstream? Cut the Middleman appeared first on Earth.Org.

“[A]s I found out, a little money to buffer them through the transition, combined with some education, is all it takes. My journey enabled me to understand that the future of our food and our survival lies within farmers,” writes Anand Ethirajalu, a programme director at Save Soil.

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This World Soil Day, I call for climate finance to be diverted to farmers on behalf of the Save Soil Movement. 

The reason is quite simple. Our agricultural soils are potentially one of the most effective carbon sinks on the planet. There is more carbon in our soils than in the world’s vegetation and the atmosphere combined. 

Yet around the world, our soils are being degraded at an alarming rate; around 40% of the world’s land is already degraded. Degraded soils not only lose their ability to produce food. They become far less effective at sequestering and storing carbon. 

Degraded soils also cannot retain moisture. This makes it difficult for farms to cope with climate risks like floods, heatwaves and drought, all of which result in heavy crop losses and enormous waste of fuel, labor and time.

Both the problem and the solution lie with farmers. I know this first-hand. 

At the age of 15, I was given a school project. Little did I know that this school project would go on to define my life’s work. 

The school project was all about adulterants in food, where I learnt the extent to which our foods in India were altered. That evening, my head was swirling as I sat around the dinner table. 

I looked down at my plate and saw my food differently. I realized that my rice was laced with Silica, my sugar was laced with sulfur, my vegetables were laced with carcinogenic pesticides, my fruits were laced with post-harvest ripening agents, my tea was laced with dung powder, and my coffee with Tamarind seeds. 

This felt counter-intuitive to me. Food is supposed to nourish us, not poison us. How could we get something so fundamental, so wrong? 

My interest in food science stayed with me. Soon after this, my father and I decided to buy a piece of land and convert it into a food garden. 

I later took up Plant Biology as my major in college to get a deeper understanding of plant life and the carbon cycle. My father resigned from his job to become a full-time farmer alongside me.

We decided that we wanted to be self-sufficient and create healthy, nutritious, chemical-free food. Without any formal training, I dived head-first into the traditional farming techniques that had no need for synthetic fertilizers.

After three years, the farm had become fully functional. We grew everything from rice and vegetables to oils and spices. We often had surplus stock, which I would leave outside my home with a simple collection jar next to a weighing scale reading “pay as you like.” I was astounded at how much people were willing to pay for high-quality, organic food. I used this extra money to travel across India on my Royal Enfield to meet and learn from pioneers in this field by staying at their farms. 

My realization was simple; farmers can live like kings if they understand regenerative farming and basic marketing. 

I begun helping hundreds of local farmers to make the same transition, away from intensive, pesticide-heavy agriculture to a diverse, regenerative approach under the leadership of Dr. G. Nammalvar, who is considered the father of organic farming in South India.

The benefits were plentiful. Farmers preserved and restored their soils, which ensured the long-term sustainability of their plots. Equally, by diversifying their crops, they became more financially robust. If one crop failed, they were saved by other crops. 

In rainy seasons, healthier soil can retain more moisture, making them more resilient to floods. The same is true of the dryer seasons, healthier soils retain more moisture during periods of drought. 

Of course, the reason for India’s increasingly erratic rainfall lies with man-made climate change. Beyond the economic benefits of regenerative farming, this practice means that our soils can sequester and store vast amounts of carbon. 

We might ask, with all of these benefits, why don’t all farmers make the transition today? The answer is straight-forward: money. 

Small and marginal farmers – those farming agricultural land of up to 2 hectares – constitute 80% of the farmers across the globe and produce 30% of the world’s food. Yet they receive less than 1% of climate finance. Agriculture and food systems as a sector receive less than 4% of the climate finance.

The shift to regenerative farming requires support during the transition period, when crops are most vulnerable to pest and diseases and farmers are learning all about the new agricultural approach.

Farmer incomes are already dangerously precarious. Their margins are razor-thin, and many get ripped off when selling their products to market. One small setback can cost their family’s livelihood. 

However, as I found out, a little money to buffer them through the transition, combined with some education, is all it takes.  

My journey enabled me to understand that the future of our food and our survival lies within farmers.

This is why Save Soil, along with other leading NGOs, are calling for a simple range of policy suggestions. These include making climate finance more accessible for farmers adopting regenerative practices, creating supportive policies for adopting sustainable land practices, mobilizing investment in soil regeneration, and integrating soil restoration into climate finance. 

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification turns 30 this year, and their major conference, UNCCD COP16, currently underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Let us make use of this, and not wait another 30 years to see our lands turn into deserts.

Supporting our farmers in their transition to regenerative agriculture is one of the smartest investments we can make for a better tomorrow. What are we waiting for?

Featured image: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center/Flickr.

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The post I’m a Farmer. Listen to Me When We Say We Need Climate Finance appeared first on Earth.Org.