SAI Platform collaboration to help advance smallholder farmer resilience in India through regenerative agriculture
25th March 2025
SAI Platform is proud to announce its latest industry collaboration, leading a new initiative to support smallholder potato farmers in India to adopt regenerative agriculture practices for enhanced resilience and improved livelihoods. In partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, PepsiCo, McCain Foods, 60 Decibels and the International Potato Center (CIP), this two-year project, which launched in January, pilots locally relevant regenerative agriculture practices. Uniting industry leaders, technical experts and participating smallholder farmers, it will also work towards developing a scalable model for integrating socio-economics into SAI Platform’s Regenerating Together Framework.
“Operating in India for over 25 years, McCain Foods is proud to be part of this exciting project which brings together research and business to advance our collective understanding of regenerative agriculture practices and their potential impact over time, within a smallholder context. The learnings from this alignment will help towards measuring the socio-economic impact of regenerative agriculture for smallholder potato famers, ensuring we scale practical regenerative methods and support sustainable livelihoods”
Yves Leclerc, Senior Director, Global Agronomy and Sustainability, McCain Foods.
Smallholder farmers form the backbone of agricultural supply chains across many regions yet often face significant challenges in adopting regenerative practices specific to their local contexts. Financial limitations, resource constraints and heightened vulnerability to climate change impacts further exacerbate barriers to progress.
This initiative aims to address these challenges by harnessing the expertise and resources of its key partners while working closely with participating farmers to co-create practical solutions that balance ecological sustainability with the socio-economic resilience of smallholders. Initially focusing on potato farmers in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the project aims to generate insights that can help inform and scale regenerative agriculture globally.
The project has two key objectives. First, it will identify and validate relevant regenerative agriculture practices that can be integrated into smallholder supply chains through collaboration with corporate partners. The initiative will work with ‘lighthouse’ and demonstration farms, within key farming communities, to test and showcase successful regenerative agriculture practices. These farms provide models for broader adoption through hands-on training and demonstration by lead farmers within and beyond their communities.
The second objective is to develop a scalable approach to monitor and support the resilience of smallholder livelihoods by identifying socio-economic indicators that capture the multi-dimensional impacts of adopting regenerative agriculture practices. Insights from the project will be used to validate and refine these indicators for broader application.
Each partner plays an important role in the initiative’s execution. PepsiCo and McCain Foods lead the establishment of lighthouse and demonstration farms, embedding regenerative agriculture practices directly into their supply chains.
“At PepsiCo, we aim to support a positive future for farmers by helping them implement sustainable agriculture practices, and that means listening to their needs and earning their trust,” said Margaret Henry, PepsiCo VP Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture.
“We’re working to spread the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across millions of acres around the world to help confront climate change and mitigate risks for our business, while also helping preserve natural resources for future generations. To do so, it’s important to understand that agriculture can look different on every farm, and so programmes like this can help find the best approach for applying sustainable farming practices that create both environmental and socio-economic benefits for farming communities and the ecosystems they rely on.”
CIP contributes vital technical expertise in selecting appropriate regenerative agriculture practices and designing and executing trials to validate them.
“Regenerative technologies can succeed with a viable implementation plan. When private sector partners like PepsiCo and McCain incentivise farmers to adopt practices like zero-till potato under rice mulch, the benefits and long-term sustainability of these practices are more probable, and there are wins for the farmers, consumers and the environment. It’s all very positive.”
Jan Kreuze, Science Leader for Regenerative Agriculture, International Potato Center.
Simultaneously, social impact measurement firm 60 Decibels leads the development and validation of a socio-economic indicators framework related to farmer adoption of regenerative agriculture. The Rockefeller Foundation supports the project with funding to SAI Platform and partnership in the furtherance of project goals for effective scaling.
SAI Platform coordinates overall activities, ensuring that they align with its Regenerating Together Framework which strives to inspire wider adoption of regenerative agriculture practices within the food and beverage industry while monitoring and supporting farmer livelihoods. The organisation will share key findings through webinars, workshops and publications, fostering collaboration among its 200+ member companies.
“SAI Platform is committed to taking a cross-sectoral approach, inclusive of industry, academia and farming communities, to ensure regenerative agriculture can be applied and scaled across diverse production systems” commented Bastian Mengel, Regenerative Agriculture Manager at SAI Platform.
These insights will help pave the way for scaling regenerative practices to other regions and farming systems, contributing to a more sustainable and equitable future for agriculture.
