UTTAR PRADESH, India, Could 15 (IPS) – The most recent shock to international meals methods, triggered by battle within the Center East and disruptions across the Strait of Hormuz, has as soon as once more uncovered a fragile fact: the world’s meals methods stay extremely weak to exterior shocks.
For Asia, particularly South Asia, the place agriculture underpins tens of millions of livelihoods, the results are quick and extreme. Rising gasoline costs, provide chain disruptions, and restricted entry to fertilizers are pushing already fragile methods to the brink.
The Strait of Hormuz isn’t just a geopolitical chokepoint; it’s a lifeline for gasoline and agricultural inputs throughout Asia. A major share of fertilizers and their uncooked supplies, together with pure fuel, transit via or originate from this route.
For nations equivalent to India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, the place agriculture employs between 38 and over 60 p.c of the workforce, this dependency creates systemic threat. When provide chains falter, the results cascade shortly: enter prices rise, planting cycles are disrupted, and farmer incomes shrink.
Even when delivery routes reopen, restoration will probably be gradual
Injury to power infrastructure and continued geopolitical uncertainty imply worth volatility and provide constraints can persist for months. For smallholder farmers, this creates a twin disaster. Exporting produce turns into tough as a consequence of logistical bottlenecks, whereas gasoline shortages hamper home distribution. On the identical time, the following cropping cycle looms, with important fertilizers both unavailable or unaffordable.
This isn’t an remoted disruption. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the warfare in Ukraine, international shocks have gotten extra frequent and interconnected. Every disaster compounds the final, pushing smallholder farmers, the spine of worldwide meals manufacturing, into deeper uncertainty. The query is now not whether or not disruptions will happen, however how ready our methods are to resist them.
On the coronary heart of the issue is overdependence on exterior, input-intensive methods, chemical fertilizers, fossil fuels, and lengthy, fragile provide chains. Decreasing this dependence is central to constructing resilience.
Regenerative Agriculture and Renewable Power Supply a Compelling Pathway Ahead.
At its core, regenerative agriculture restores soil well being, enhances biodiversity, improves water retention, and reduces reliance on artificial inputs. Practices equivalent to crop diversification, natural soil enrichment, lowered tillage, and built-in pest administration shift farming from an extractive to a restorative mannequin.
By rebuilding pure soil fertility, these approaches scale back dependence on exterior inputs. As an alternative of relying closely on urea in rice cultivation, regenerative methods promote nutrient biking and organic nitrogen fixation via legumes, alongside using compost and manure to strengthen soil natural matter and guarantee a gradual, pure nutrient provide.
Integrating renewable power additional strengthens resilience. Photo voltaic-powered irrigation replaces fuel-based inputs with clear, dependable power, decreasing operational prices and enhancing water-use effectivity—particularly important during times of disruption.
The proof base for these approaches is each rising and compelling. In Bangladesh, a number of research present that photo voltaic irrigation constantly outperforms diesel methods, delivering larger returns, enhancing meals safety, and lowering irrigation prices by 20–50 p.c, whereas considerably boosting profitability (Rana, 2021; Buisson, 2024; Sunny, 2023; Sarker, 2025).
Analysis additionally reveals that bio-based inputs like compost, biochar, and inexperienced manure can partially change artificial fertilizers, typically with out yield loss, whereas enhancing soil well being (Naher, 2021; Ferdous, 2023; Behera, 2025).
Regenerative Agriculture is Not Simply an Environmental Answer—It’s an Financial One
By lowering dependence on risky exterior inputs equivalent to chemical fertilizers and fossil fuels, regenerative agriculture shields farmers from international worth shocks whereas enhancing long-term productiveness and earnings.
Rising proof from Nepal and India reinforces this pattern: whereas yields typically stay secure, lowered enter prices considerably improve farm profitability (Magar, 2022; Dhakal, 2022; Berger, 2025).
A broader evaluation by the Observer Research Foundation (2025) finds that though yields might dip barely throughout transition, most circumstances report larger yields over time, alongside improved revenue stability pushed by decrease enter dependence.
Related developments are being noticed globally, reinforcing that regenerative approaches can ship each resilience and profitability throughout various farming methods (link).
Importantly, these outcomes are already seen on the bottom in South Asia. Via applications led by Heifer International, smallholder farmers are adopting regenerative and climate-smart practices that scale back prices, enhance yields, and strengthen resilience.
In Bangladesh’s Jashore district, as an example, girls farmers organized into cooperatives have lowered irrigation prices, improved productiveness, and strengthened market entry via photo voltaic irrigation, natural soil administration, and collective motion.
As one farmer, Shirin Akter, shares: “Adopting climate-smart practices and pooling sources via my cooperative allowed me to develop various crops. When drought hit, I nonetheless had harvests to promote, and my cooperative helped me recuperate shortly.”
For farmers like Shirin, these shifts are transformative, turning vulnerability into resilience via diversified methods, decrease enter dependence, and stronger collective assist. Related fashions in Nepal present how regenerative, community-based approaches can scale back useful resource stress whereas enhancing incomes.
Scaling this Transition Requires Motion Past the Farm
To transition to a resilient and sustainable meals system, a multi-stakeholder strategy is crucial. Policymakers ought to realign incentives to assist sustainable practices and scale back dependence on imported inputs. Monetary establishments and insurers ought to acknowledge the decrease threat profiles of regenerative methods.
Companies should embed sustainability into core selections, prioritizing sourcing from farmers adopting regenerative practices and constructing longer-term, secure provide relationships. On the identical time, advertising and marketing groups can form client demand by speaking the worth of sustainably produced meals. Collectively, these shifts can align provide chains and markets in assist of extra resilient meals methods.
The stakes are excessive. The World Food Programme warns that roughly 45 million extra folks may very well be pushed into starvation if present disruptions persist, including to the 318 million folks already meals insecure.
We can’t proceed rebuilding fragile meals methods after each shock. We should redesign them. Regenerative agriculture affords a pathway to cut back dependence on risky exterior inputs, restore ecological steadiness, and construct resilience the place it issues most—on the farm degree.
To replenish what has been used up isn’t just an environmental necessity—it’s the basis of safer, equitable, and resilient meals methods throughout Asia.
Neena Joshi is the Senior Vice President for Asia Applications at Heifer International. With over 20 years of expertise, she leads initiatives to construct inclusive, sustainable agrifood methods and empower smallholder farmers, particularly girls and youth, throughout Asia.
IPS UN Bureau
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