Government Policy Must Reward Sustainability for India’s Smallholder Farmers: Syngenta

As climate pressures mount and food systems evolve, the call to support sustainability for India’s smallholder farmers is growing urgent. Syngenta, a global crop protection and seeds company, has highlighted the need for government policy to specifically incentivise climate-smart and regenerative practices among smallholder farmers—who constitute approximately 80% of the agricultural sector in India—if rural incomes, productivity, and long-term food security are to improve amidst erratic weather and resource challenges.

The landscape for smallholders in India is rapidly changing, with unpredictable monsoons, droughts, floods, and volatile crop prices regularly putting their 1–2 hectare holdings at risk. Despite their centrality to national food supply and rural livelihoods, smallholder farmers frequently lack the financial cushions, insurance, or market access to confidently adopt sustainable or regenerative practices that are proven to improve soil health, crop yield stability, and climate resilience. Without reliable support or a market premium for climate-smart crops, adoption remains slow and risky for individual families.

Syngenta Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Petra Laux, has outlined ways that targeted policy can help bridge this gap. Unlike organic or specialty crop markets—where consumers might pay extra for eco-labelled produce—most mainstream food buyers do not pay a premium for sustainably grown staples. Globally, just 5% of climate transition funding reaches the agricultural sector, even though agriculture generates about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, underscoring the funding mismatch limiting scale and innovation. India’s rapidly digitising and youthful farmer base, she argues, is well-placed to adopt new practices, but meaningful change will need reward structures and policy support at scale.

Models do exist. In Europe, Denmark levies farm emission taxes and links certain subsidies to practices that cut greenhouse gases. Forthcoming global deliberations, including COP30 in Brazil, are expected to further explore subsidy frameworks, carbon pricing, and innovative finance partnerships. In India, Syngenta’s own market-linkage programmes, digital advisory platforms, and microfinancing for high-yield seeds and biostimulants are enabling more than three million farmers. These platforms foster price transparency, connect users to modern agronomy, and stabilise incomes against market shocks.

Finance and policy are not the only barriers. Regulation of biostimulants and climate-resilient crop technologies remains uncertain and complex. Syngenta points to the growing importance of biostimulants—natural or biological products that bolster crop resilience against abiotic stress such as drought and heat, improving nutrient uptake and carbon sequestration. These innovations can reduce fertiliser overuse and lock more carbon into soils, supporting both yields and climate goals. However, farmer adoption remains early-stage, which Syngenta partly attributes to unclear regulatory pathways and insufficient public awareness.

The path forward, according to Syngenta and many development experts, must include government-backed financial incentives—whether through direct subsidies, tax rebates for sustainable inputs, crop insurance bonuses for climate-smart farming, or new reward systems for successful implementation of regenerative techniques like no-till farming, crop rotation, precision input use, and cover cropping. Linking sustainability to farmer resilience and market access is vital for future soil health, rural prosperity, and national food security.

Syngenta’s wider sustainability priorities, detailed in its ESG reports, include enabling regenerative agriculture on 50 million hectares by 2030 and producing 85% of its seeds through regenerative practices. Its digital tools diagnose plant health for millions, provide instant advice, and connect smallholders to collective resources and microfinance for better technology adoption. Partnerships with governments, traders, and NGOs are critical for mainstreaming these solutions, helping smallholders move away from subsistence risk towards profitable, climate-resilient models.

The challenge—expressed in the company’s interviews and COP30 agenda proposals—remains unlocking finance and creating premium market structures for sustainability, so that responsible farmers receive tangible rewards for practices that benefit the climate, biodiversity, and local communities. In India, such a policy pivot could put millions on a secure, sustainable footing for the decades ahead.