The Regenerative Landscapes Theme focuses on restoring, enhancing, and sustainably managing agricultural landscapes to improve productivity, resilience, natural resource stewardship, and livelihoods across the drylands of Asia and Africa. integrating science, innovation, and partnerships, the theme develops and scales solutions that strengthen the health of soils, water resources, ecosystems, and farming communities.
Recognizing that resilient agricultural systems depend on healthy landscapes, the theme promotes integrated approaches that combine soil and water conservation, climate-smart agriculture, regenerative farming practices, agroforestry, biodiversity enhancement, and sustainable intensification. These approaches help farmers increase productivity while reducing environmental impacts and improving the long-term sustainability of natural resources.
A key component of the theme is the ICRISAT Development Center (IDC), ICRISAT’s translational Research-for-Development platform. IDC plays a central role in bridging the gap between scientific innovation and large-scale impact by testing, adapting, and scaling proven solutions through partnerships with governments, development agencies, research institutions, the private sector, and farming communities.
Through innovation platforms and landscape-based learning sites across diverse agroecological regions, the theme supports research and development on climate resilience, land restoration, water security, sustainable livelihoods, nutrition, and ecosystem health. These sites serve as hubs for testing integrated solutions and accelerating their adoption at scale.
The theme contributes to global efforts to address climate change, land degradation, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity by promoting approaches that regenerate natural resources while supporting economic opportunities for rural communities.
Key Areas of Focus:
Regenerative agriculture and sustainable land management
Landscape restoration and ecosystem resilience
Soil health and soil fertility management
Water conservation, watershed management, and water-use efficiency
Climate-smart and nature-positive agriculture
Agroforestry and integrated farming systems
Sustainable crop intensification and diversification
Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services
Resource-efficient mechanization and agricultural innovation
Community-based natural resource management
Scaling and adoption of proven agricultural solutions
Monitoring, evaluation, learning, and impact assessment
Capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing
How We Work:
Scaling Proven Solutions
The theme works to transform proven technologies and practices into integrated, landscape-level solutions that can be adopted at scale. Through partnerships and evidence-based approaches, successful innovations are adapted and expanded to reach more farming communities.
Accelerating Innovation Adoption
We identify and promote emerging technologies and approaches with the potential to improve productivity, resilience, and sustainability. Working closely with partners, we support testing, validation, and deployment across diverse farming systems.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
Robust monitoring and evaluation systems help track outcomes, assess impact, and generate lessons that improve future interventions. This ensures that investments and innovations deliver measurable benefits for farmers, communities, and landscapes.
Capacity Strengthening and Partnerships
The theme works with governments, research institutions, development organizations, private-sector partners, and farmer groups to strengthen capacities, share knowledge, and support the long-term adoption of sustainable land management practices.
Impact Through the ICRISAT Development Center
The ICRISAT Development Center (IDC) serves as the theme’s primary platform for translating research into development outcomes. Through large-scale partnerships and field implementation programs, IDC helps deliver practical solutions that improve soil health, water security, agricultural productivity, climate resilience, and rural livelihoods.