Key Details
A PIB overview, Rebuilding Farming Systems: Regenerative Agriculture for a Resilient India, brings several existing agricultural programmes under a common regenerative-agriculture framework. It does not announce a new scheme; it shows the current reach of interventions intended to improve soil health, water efficiency, biodiversity and farm resilience.
Intervention | Reported Progress |
|---|---|
Natural farming | 18,786 clusters covering 8.80 lakh hectares and enrolling 18.19 lakh farmers as of 5 March 2026 |
Micro-irrigation | Around 109 lakh hectares covered under Per Drop More Crop as of May 2026 |
Organic farming | 16.90 lakh hectares covered under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana since inception |
Integrated farming | Rainfed Area Development covered 9.53 lakh hectares and benefited 15.73 lakh farmers as of December 2025 |
Soil testing | 25.89 crore Soil Health Cards generated since the scheme began, as of 13 March 2026 |
Regenerative Agriculture Is an Umbrella Approach
Regenerative agriculture seeks to improve farming ecosystems rather than merely prevent further deterioration.Its principles include limiting soil disturbance, maintaining soil cover and living roots, integrating livestock, reducing dependence on chemical inputs and increasing biological diversity.
The approach can draw upon different practices depending on local conditions:
Natural and organic farming use biological or organic inputs while promoting mulching, mixed cropping and reduced soil disturbance.
Micro-irrigation reduces water losses by supplying water more precisely.
Integrated farming systems combine crops with livestock, fisheries, horticulture, agroforestry or apiculture to spread production and income risks.
Soil-health management uses testing, balanced nutrient application, green manuring and cover crops to improve fertility and resource efficiency.
These practices should not be treated as interchangeable. Their costs, agronomic suitability and effects on yields can differ by crop, soil, rainfall and farm size.
Several Schemes Are Supporting the Transition
The National Mission on Natural Farming, launched in 2024, provides participating farmers an output-based incentive of ₹4,000 per acre annually for two years, limited to one acre. It also envisages 10,000 Bio-input Resource Centres and deploys trained community resource persons to support natural-farming clusters.
Under Per Drop More Crop, small and marginal farmers receive 55% assistance for installing drip or sprinkler irrigation, while other farmers receive 45%. Central assistance released since 2015-16 amounts to ₹26,325 crore.
The Rainfed Area Development Programme supports integrated farming with assistance of ₹30,000 per family. Meanwhile, the agroforestry component of PM-RKVY supported 135 new nurseries and the raising of 176.59 lakh saplings during 2025-26 up to 31 October 2025.
The Soil Health Card Scheme provides plot-level nutrient assessments and crop-specific recommendations. Its reach is extensive, but the more important test is whether farmers can translate those recommendations into balanced and affordable nutrient use.
Scale Does Not Yet Establish Regeneration
The figures primarily measure clusters formed, hectares covered, farmers enrolled, cards issued and funds released. They do not, on their own, establish improvements in soil organic carbon, water retention, biodiversity, yields or farm profitability.
A credible regenerative-agriculture strategy therefore needs to connect programme delivery with outcomes such as:
changes in soil health and fertiliser use;
water saved per unit of production;
yield and income performance during climatic shocks;
farmer continuation after incentives end; and
crop- and region-specific transition costs.
Without comparable outcome data, it remains difficult to distinguish durable changes in farming systems from short-term participation in individual schemes.
Policy Relevance
India already has many of the programme components needed for regenerative agriculture. The next step is to make them work as a coordinated, locally adapted system.
District-level convergence can link Soil Health Card recommendations with natural-farming support, micro-irrigation, agroforestry and integrated-farming assistance. Such convergence should be based on local soil, water and cropping conditions rather than a uniform package.
Transition risks also require attention. Farmers may face temporary yield uncertainty, additional labour requirements or weak markets for differentiated produce. Extension services should provide multi-season agronomic support and transparent evidence on both benefits and trade-offs.
Finally, public reporting should move from aggregate reach towards measurable ecological and economic outcomes. Soil quality, input expenditure, water use, yields and net farm income should be tracked together to establish whether regeneration is working for farmers as well as ecosystems.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: Can India convert the expanding reach of its farm schemes into verifiable improvements in soil health, water efficiency and farmer incomes?
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