Across Southeast Asia, the past year has been a stark reminder that climate change is no longer a distant threat for agriculture, but a daily reality. Extreme weather has devastated farms and rural livelihoods, exposing the fragility of agrifood systems that today increasingly operate on degraded soils and single-crop farming models.
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At the same time, Asean leaders have made clear that the future of food security and climate resilience depends on a shift towards more sustainable and regenerative approaches. The question now is how quickly those commitments can be translated into action on the ground, particularly as a super El Niño, threatens to bring further disruption.
Across the region, impact enterprises are already showing what is possible, restoring soil health, improving water management and helping farmers adapt to climate shocks. But their ability to deliver change at scale will depend on something bigger than innovation alone. Promising approaches need the right conditions to work for farmers, take root in communities and grow. Sustained collaboration between the public and private sectors will be critical to creating those conditions.
Communities and local knowledge shaping the work
No amount of technology or external expertise can replace the insight farmers hold about their land. This is why regenerative agriculture succeeds when it is built with, rather than simply delivered to, communities.
In Indonesia, some organisations are collaborating directly with farming communities across the country to scale the adoption of regenerative approaches.
In Aceh, where cocoa farms sit beside one of Southeast Asia’s most biodiverse ecosystems, the Leuser Ecosystem, demonstration plots act as open classrooms.
Farmers see new, climate-smart practices applied in the same soils and microclimates they work in every day. They test the ideas. They adapt them. They decide what fits their reality. That hands‑on learning, reinforced by repeated coaching, has strengthened understanding and uptake of regenerative techniques.
Such approaches also recognise that lasting change depends on women having a stronger voice within the household. Through Gender Action Learning System (GALS) training, women – long long central to farm labour but often excluded from planning – are increasingly shaping how farms are managed and how income is used. Evidence shows that when women are more actively involved, farms tend to reinvest more in soil health and diversify income sources. The training has also encouraged a more balanced sharing of responsibilities within farming households.
Among trained households, jointly performed tasks increased by 26 per cent, while shared farm work reached up to 60 per cent. Meanwhile, tasks performed solely by wives declined, indicating a redistribution of responsibilities rather than an increased household workload burden on women.
Making economic sense out of regenerative agriculture
For many smallholders, the biggest barrier to regenerative practices isn’t motivation. It’s cost. Sustainable methods feel risky when organic inputs are expensive or unfamiliar, or when the benefits seem distant. Regenerative agriculture becomes viable when the economics shift in farmers’ favour.
Another regenerative agriculture scheme turns cow manure and agricultural waste into affordable organic fertiliser. In doing so, the enterprise offers farmers a practical alternative to artificial fertilisers that degrade the soil and drain budgets.
Healthier soils, lower input costs and increased yields create a cycle that rewards regenerative adoption rather than penalising it. Through one project alone, more than 1,770 smallholder farmers accessed organic inputs through a buy-now-pay-later model aligned with harvest cycles.
During the same period, 706 farmers reported increased yields, while farmers working with the enterprise recorded a combined income increase of more than £516,000. When farmers feel that shift directly, in their harvests and their cash flow, regenerative agriculture becomes a choice they can confidently make.
Collaboration is the catalyst that turns promising pilots into lasting, scalable change
Even the most innovative enterprise can only go so far alone. The challenges facing smallholder agriculture such as fragmented value chains and climate shocks, are larger than any single organisation.
Scaling effective solutions requires the local knowledge and innovation of impact enterprises to be matched with the resources and capabilities of business and government. Working with a cross-sector impact accelerator, I’ve seen how combining grant funding with tailored business support can help enterprises test and scale locally led solutions.
This support enabled an enterprise working with cocoa farmers to deliver an integrated programme spanning women’s empowerment, agroforestry demonstration plots and regenerative agriculture training. The programme also helped farmers turn cocoa waste into lower-cost organic inputs and introduced on-farm greenhouse gas measurement, laying the groundwork for lower-carbon cocoa production.
Similar support helped an enterprise producing organic agricultural inputs improve production safety, expand its machinery and experiment with new material sources, including rejected vegetables and by-products of food processing.
In the Philippines, another enterprise working with seaweed farmers illustrates what communities, local government and supporting organisations can achieve when they co-design solutions that are innovative and locally relevant.
Seaweed farmers in the Philippines have long relied on ageing techniques that contribute to marine plastic pollution as well as the overall decline of coral reefs. Working alongside public and private partners, the enterprise has been able to refine its regenerative input packages and farm management support offerings across coastal communities to convert underproductive, underutilised and unsustainable farms into highly productive and more sustainable operations. The project reached more than 280 farming families, with yields quadrupling and seaweed quality improving by 5 per cent in carrageenan strength. The initiative has also contributed to the protection of nearly 6,000 hectares of coastal waters.
Southeast Asia stands at a pivotal moment. Global buyers expect traceability and responsible production. Climate impacts are intensifying. Consumers are paying closer attention to how products are sourced and produced. Together, these pressures make a strong case for shifting towards regenerative agriculture.
Maya Tamimi is Head of Sustainable Environment, Unilever Indonesia and Project Lead at TRANSFORM, an impact accelerator led by Unilever, the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and EY .
