Regenerative Agriculture for Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Systems: Global Perspective with Special Focus on Pakistan

Abstract

As the planet faces unprecedented environmental and climatic pressures, regenerative agriculture offers a framework for radically rethinking how food is produced. In contrast to most industrial forms of farming that damage soils and increase greenhouse gas emissions, regenerative practices harness nature's processes to enhance soil health, promote biodiversity, and strengthen ecosystem functions that support resilient food systems. Building on practices such as cover cropping, diverse crop rotations, minimal tillage, and agroforestry, regenerative agriculture increases the capacity to sequester carbon in soils and resources. Not only does it improve water retention, but it also buffers agricultural landscapes against extreme weather events, which are essential pillars of climate resilience and sustainability. However, barriers to adoption, such as economic considerations, knowledge gaps between scientists and farmers on regenerative practices, and disconnected governance policies, need to be addressed via an integrated framework that reinforces linkages among science, efficiency, and evidence-based framing of incentives provided to growers (e.g., Marketplace providers), whilst ensuring informed policy support by decision makers towards scaling aligned, transformative outcomes across agrifood systems. This review consolidates the latest research on regenerative principles, climate mitigation and adaptation effectiveness. Its main goal is to critically assess current scientific understanding of regenerative agriculture, exploring opportunities and challenges for its adoption in developing countries such as Pakistan. Additionally, it integrates agronomic, socio-economic, and ecological perspectives, emphasizing regenerative agriculture as a key strategy for developing climate-resilient and sustainable food systems, rather than presenting it as a one-size-fits-all solution.