About 95% of human food depends on healthy land. Yet, nearly half of the world’s land is already degraded, according to the UN.

If the degradation continues, farmers may not have enough fertile soil to grow food in the next few decades. UNESCO warns that 90% of the planet’s surface could be degraded by 2050 without better soil protection.

Regenerative agriculture can restore soil health and slow down degradation. But can it truly produce enough food for a global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2058?

What regenerative agriculture actually is (and why it matters)

Regenerative agriculture is a farming method that primarily focuses on restoring and maintaining soil health.

Examples of regenerative farming practices include:

  • Adopting no-till or reduced-till techniques to minimize soil disturbance and preserve its structure
  • Planting cover crops year-round to prevent erosion and increase soil organic carbon content
  • Rotating different types of crops in the same piece of land to balance nutrient usage or enrich the soil with nutrients, such as nitrogen
  • Reducing chemical inputs by only using them when and where they are needed

The quality and quantity of harvests depend on the condition of the land they grow on.

When farmers focus on healthier soil, they can produce more food in the long run while reducing their environmental impact. Isn’t that better than pushing for short-term yields that exhaust the land over time?

The problem with industrial agriculture

Industrial agriculture — large-scale, intensive farming that relies on heavy machinery, synthetic fertilizers, and chemical pesticides — can boost food production in the short term.

But the same methods it uses to maximize yield weaken the very foundation of the world’s future food supply.

For example, heavy tillage churns up the natural carbon in the soil, releasing it into the atmosphere. This contributes to global warming, a key driver of climate change. In turn, climate change increases food insecurity.

Plus, heavy usage of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides can harm micro-organisms important for soil health, change the soil’s natural acidity or alkalinity (which affects how plants grow), and interfere with the soil’s natural process of storing and recycling carbon.

In short, industrial agriculture is unsustainable because it degrades the soil over time.

Can regenerative agriculture scale?

Regenerative agriculture can scale to meet the world’s growing food needs.

It protects existing farmland from becoming unusable and restores land that’s already degraded. This expands the area of productive land available for commercial farming globally.

Additionally, regenerative practices like agroforestry, cover cropping, and holistic grazing can be tailored to farms of any size, making them scalable.

And despite the misconception that regenerative farming is “low-yield,” research shows the opposite. A recent study found that farmers using regenerative methods achieve higher yields and up to 120% more long-term profits than those using conventional farming.

That explains why countries like the United States, India, Brazil, and Argentina are increasingly using regenerative agriculture.

Evidence that regenerative agriculture can boost production

Here is evidence showing that regenerative agriculture increases production and why it’s the future of farming:

  • Latin America: PRO Carbono, a program launched in 2020 to support regenerative agriculture in Argentina and Brazil, works with more than 2,000 farmers managing about 220,000 hectares of soy, corn, and cotton. In the first four years, farmers in the program who adopted regenerative practices saw their production rise by an average of 11% per year.
  • Asia: In India, the Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) program — now involving more than half a million farmers — has shown that regenerative practices can outperform conventional farming. When researchers compared yields over three cropping seasons from 2019 to 2020, regenerative agriculture yields increased each season, while conventional yields declined. For example, groundnut farmers using regenerative methods produced 30%–40% more throughout the seasons than those using conventional practices.
  • Africa: Between 2017 and 2024, over 50,000 smallholder farmers joined the Strengthening Regenerative Agriculture in Kenya (STRAK) project. Over 70% transitioned from conventional to regenerative farming practices. And as a result, they reported up to 81% higher yields per acre.

Regenerative practices like no tillage and intercropping make the soil healthier by increasing its nutrient content and improving its ability to retain water, which in turn boosts production.

Besides increasing yield, regenerative farming reduces smallholder farmers’ reliance on chemical inputs. This cuts costs and improves profitability.

How regenerative agriculture strengthens global food security

Regenerative practices like no-till farming and cover cropping prevent soil moisture from escaping into the atmosphere, making farmlands more resilient to drought. They also minimize erosion by wind and floods.

What’s more? Regen farming encourages biodiversity that creates a stable, sustainable farming ecosystem. For example, planting pasture as a cover crop and integrating livestock allows animals to feed on the pasture, while their manure naturally enriches the soil for cash and cover crops.

By making farms more resilient and self-reliant, regenerative agriculture reduces dependence on global supply chains. That’s because it naturally restores soil fertility, so farmers can produce more food without relying on imported fertilizers.

And because this approach reduces input costs and promotes sustainable food systems, it’s more profitable in the long term than conventional farming methods. Higher income can help keep farmers in business longer.

Barriers to adoption (plus how the world can overcome them)

Regenerative agriculture faces several challenges:

Policy gaps

Government subsidies, incentives, and regulations often promote conventional farming, leaving regenerative practices under-supported. To overcome this barrier, countries can implement policies that favor regenerative methods and enforce soil protection standards.

Lack of training and knowledge

Regenerative agriculture is still gaining traction, so many farmers don’t know how to implement it effectively yet. Education programs sponsored by the government, NGOs, or agricultural institutions can help them master regenerative techniques.

Market pressures

Conventional farming, backed with government subsidies, makes it difficult for regenerative products to compete in the market. Sufficient government support can help level the playing field.

So, can regenerative agriculture feed the world?

Short-term yield comparisons often make regenerative agriculture seem less productive than conventional farming. But they miss the bigger picture.

Regenerative methods rebuild soil, improve water retention, boost long-term yields, and promote climate-resilient agriculture. With the right policies and training, regenerative agriculture can feed the world by securing long-term, sustainable productivity for a growing population.

To accelerate adoption, we must expand support for smallholder farmers by providing the knowledge, tools, and training needed to implement regenerative practices effectively. The goal is to promote soil health and food production that works with nature rather than against it.