Output
1) Analytical Report on Regenerative Agriculture (APEC Publication)
Analytical Report entitled “Pathways to Regenerative Agriculture in APEC region and Beyond”
I. Context and Rationale
Agriculture remains a cornerstone of economic growth, food security, and rural livelihoods across the APEC region. Yet, the sector faces mounting challenges from environmental threats, land degradation, water scarcity, and declining soil fertility. Conventional practices, often reliant on high external inputs, have contributed to environmental stress while providing limited resilience to farmers, especially smallholders. In this context, regenerative agriculture (RA) is emerging as a transformative approach that not only enhances productivity but also restores ecosystems, supports carbon sequestration, and strengthens long-term resilience.
Despite its potential, regenerative agriculture is often understood and implemented differently across APEC economies. Multiple overlapping concepts—such as sustainable, green, and climate-smart agriculture— create confusion for both policymakers and practitioners.
The analytical report aims to reach a shared understanding of harmonized regional definition of regenerative agriculture, which hinders coordinated policy development and investment. Closing this gap is critical to enable a common vision, aligned policy frameworks, and practical implementation pathways.
Based on the in-depth research, the report analyses and synthesizes 6 categories of regenerative agriculture practices including i) soil cover; ii) soil disturbance; iii) biodiversity; iv) fertilization; v) crop protection; and
vi) water management in APEC economies. By doing this, the report will come up with a common understanding of regenerative agriculture which can be used as a useful reference for APEC economies’ policies, strategies and programs/projects.
By having insights into the gaps, the report also studies different innovative financing mechanisms for the uptake of regenerative agriculture in the APEC region, especially covering the solutions to women’s access to micro-finance. The Report will come up with the set of policy recommendations for improving women’s role in the value chain in particular and in agriculture sector in general.
PPP outcomes from the APEC PPP Dialogue on Regenerative Agriculture will be integrated into the Report to strengthen recommendations. And the PPP Dialogue Report will be included in the Analytical Report on Regenerative Agriculture.
III. Key Contents and Structure of the Report
The Report will be structured into 9 major sections:
1. Research method and target economies
To develop the Report, a consultative and multi-stakeholder approach will be adopted, ensuring inclusiveness and relevance. Key steps will include:
-Desk research and data collection on the state of regenerative agriculture across APEC economies (especially China, Indonesia and the Philippines) and other APEC developing economies; workshop reports, and scientific research results
-Case studies to showcase successful applications of innovative technologies and practices related to regenerative agriculture, especially those benefiting smallholder and/or family farmers and women.
-Questionnaires, with 8 – 10 questions developed to collect information from member economies, and to consult with policymakers, researchers, private sector actors, and farmers’ organizations to capture diverse perspectives.
2. Executive Summary
- Brief overview of purpose, scope, and key findings.
- High-level policy and financing recommendations.
3. Introduction
- Background: Global challenges in agriculture (environmental threats, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, high external input dependence)
- Why Regenerative Agriculture (RA) matters in the APEC context
- Objectives of the study:
o To establish a common understanding of RA among APEC economies.
o To explore innovative financing mechanisms that can accelerate adoption.
4. Conceptual Framework of Regenerative Agriculture
- Definitions: Global vs. APEC economies vs. other institutional approaches.
- Core principles (soil health, biodiversity, water management, minimal external inputs, social inclusion).
- Practices and systems: agroforestry, polyculture, rotational cropping, livestock integration.
- Distinction from other approaches (climate-smart agriculture, organic, sustainable intensification).
5. Current Status of Regenerative Agriculture in APEC
- Overview of practices and adoption across member economies.
- Case studies: e.g., agroforestry in Southeast Asia, regenerative rice-fish systems, conservation agriculture in Australia.
- Policy and institutional landscape supporting RA.
- Barriers and enablers (technical, market, social, policy).
6. Regenerative Agriculture Influences on Environmental and Socioeconomic Outcomes
- Soil health and carbon sequestration (mitigation potential).
- Environmental resilience (pest/disease management, drought tolerance, water retention).
- Ecosystem services (water quality, biodiversity).
- Livelihoods, women's equality, and local and Indigenous Knowledge integration.
7. Financing Regenerative Agriculture
- Current financing gaps and challenges in scaling RA.
- Traditional vs. innovative financing mechanisms:
o Green/climate bonds, if appropriate
o Carbon in-setting and offsetting markets.
o Blended finance (public–private–philanthropy).
o Payment for ecosystem services (PES).
o Insurance models for RA risk management.
- Role of corporate supply chain commitments (e.g., Nestlé, Unilever frameworks).
8. Implications for policy and practice
- Proposed APEC Common Principles for RA (drawing on IDH framework and local practices).
- Mainstream RA in APEC’s climate, food security, and trade agendas.
9. Conclusion
- Summary of opportunities and challenges.
- Call for action: collective movement toward resilient and productive agri- food systems in APEC.
The Report will be at minimum 50 pages (excluding Annexes). The Report will be circulated to member economies for comments and consolidations, which is considered an important background paper to design the Workshop and discussed further at the Workshop for the Report improvement. Once the Report is completed, it can be shared among member economies for references. The Analytical Report on Regenerative Agriculture is an APEC publication.
2) PPP Dialogue on Regenerative Agriculture
APEC PPP Dialogue on: Promoting Public and Private Partnership for Regenerative Agriculture
Objectives
The PPP Dialogue aims to:
- Raise awareness of Regenerative Agriculture practices across APEC region
- Develop a shared understanding of regenerative agriculture pathways across APEC’s major value chains
- Identify market drivers and adoption barriers specific to these value chains.
- Explore financial levers, such as blended finance, traceability, and partnerships, to reduce risks and build demand for regenerative practices.
- Discuss possible PPP collaborative approaches.
Key Contents and Topics for Presentations and Exchanges:
The Dialogue will be structured around thematic sessions combining expert presentations, case studies, and interactive discussions. Key topics include:
- Regenerative Agriculture Frameworks
- Case studies as thought starters
- Sharing Best Practices on Regenerative Agriculture from APEC economies
- Innovative financing solutions to upscale Regenerative Agriculture
- Pathways to Promoting Public and Private Partnership forscale-up
- Closing keynote on Scaling and Implementing Regenerative Agriculture Key Audiences: The Dialogue will convene a wide variety of stakeholders, reflecting the multi-dimensional nature of agricultural sector innovation:
- Government representatives: Policymakers from agriculture, trade, environment, science and technology ministries, and food security agencies across APEC economies.
- Research and academia: Experts from agricultural universities, research institutes, and international organizations.
- Private sector: Agribusinesses, seed companies, digital technology providers, rice processors, and traders.
- Financial institutions: banks, private investors, impactfunds
- Farmers and producer organizations: Smallholder representatives, cooperatives, and associations, with attention to women and youth participation.
- Development partners and NGOs: Organizations supporting sustainable agriculture, rural development, and resilient and productive foodsystems. The draft 3-day agenda PPP Dialogue is developed as follows:
DAY 1 – BUILDING A SHARED FOUNDATION
Theme: Understanding Regenerative Agriculture and Why PPPs Matter Focus: Awareness, common language, value-chain perspectives Session 1: Opening & Setting the Context
Objective: Establish shared purpose, expectations, and baseline understanding
- Opening remarks
o APEC Secretariat / Host Economy
- Workshop objectives & agenda walkthrough
- Participant icebreaker (interactive)
- What does regenerative agriculture mean in your work?
- Participants map their role (policy, finance, business, farmer, research) Session 2: Regenerative Agriculture Frameworks
Objective: Build a common conceptual understanding across economies and sectors
- Expert presentation
- Global and regional regenerative agriculture frameworks
- Principles vs. practices vs. outcomes
- Guided Q&A
- Interactive poll
o Where are APEC economies on the regeneration journey? Session 3: Value Chain Perspectives & Market Drivers
Objective: Understand how regenerative agriculture applies across major value chains
- Short case inputs (thought starters) (e.g. rice, coffee, livestock, horticulture)
- Panel discussion
- Market drivers: demand, regulation, ESG, traceability
- Adoption barriers: cost, risk, knowledge, incentives
- Breakout groups (mixed stakeholders)
o Identify drivers & barriers from their own economies/value chains Session 4: Knowledge Marketplace – APEC Experience Sharing Objective: Facilitate peer-to-peer learning and regional knowledge exchange
- Rotating “knowledge tables”
- Best practices from APEC economies
- Policy tools, private initiatives, farmer-led innovation
- Participants rotate every 20 minutes
- Harvest key insights Day 1 Wrap-up Reflection
Key takeaways
- Preview of field trip learning objectives DAY 2 – FROM PRACTICE TO PARTNERSHIP
Theme: Seeing Regeneration in Action & Enabling Scale Focus: Experiential learning, finance, PPP mechanisms Session 5: Field trip (1/2 day morning)
Location: in Binh Phuoc province
Purpose: to demonstrate real-world implementation of regenerative agriculture enabled by public–private collaboration, and to translate theory into practical, observable outcomes.
What the Field Trip Will Demonstrate:
- Regenerative practices in action (e.g. soil health, biodiversity, input reduction)
- Role of private sector (agribusiness, processors, technology providers)
- Role of public sector (extension, standards, incentives)
- Farmer-level decision-making and risk considerations
- Traceability, monitoring, or digital tools (if applicable) Suggested Site Types (flexible):
- A regenerative farm or cooperative
- A value-chain-linked enterprise (processor, buyer, aggregator)
- A PPP-supported pilot or demonstration site Learning Activities On-site:
- Guided walkthrough with farmers and implementers
- Q&A focused on “what worked / what didn’t”
- Small group observation tasks (participants assigned focus areas: policy, finance, tech, farmer perspective)
Session 6: Reflection from the Field (in-house) Objective: Convert observation into learning and insight
- Structured reflection groups o What surprised you?
o What would work / not work in your context?
- Plenary synthesis
o Link field insights back to frameworks from Day 1 Session 7: Financing Regenerative Agriculture
Objective: Build understanding of financial levers and risk-sharing mechanisms
- Expert presentations
o Blended finance, impact investment, outcome-based finance
o Role of banks, funds, and corporates
- Interactive case analysis
o Participants assess a hypothetical regenerative investment scenario
- Open discussion
o What makes projects bankable? Day 2 Wrap-up
- Key insights from practice and finance
- Bridge to PPP platform design DAY 3 – SCALING THROUGH PPPs
Theme: From Dialogue to Action
Focus: Collaboration models, platform design, application Session 8: PPP Pathways for Scaling
Objective: Explore effective PPP models for regenerative agriculture
- Expert case studies
o Successful PPPs in APEC economies
- Panel discussion
o Roles and responsibilities of government, private sector, finance
- Q&A
Session 9: Conceptual discussion of possible PPP collaborative approaches (Approaches may be incorporated into policy recommendations, however not establishment of formal platform or networks as a project output) Objective: Generate practical, participant-led ideas
- Group work (mixed stakeholders)
o Design a PPP collaborative approach concept:
- Target value chain
- Roles of partners
- Financing approach
- Risk-sharing
- Group presentations
- Peer feedback
Final Session: Reflection, Learning Capture & Application
Objective: Consolidate learning and support post-workshop application
- Facilitated reflection discussion o What did you gain the most?
o What will you apply in your role?
o What partnerships or actions could emerge?
- Individual action notes
o Participants write 1–2 concrete next steps
- Workshop synthesis
o Key messages, common priorities, next steps for APEC cooperation Closing Remarks
- Host Economy / APEC Secretariat
3) PPP Dialogue Report
The PPP Dialogue Report to summarize, from the presentations and discussions of the Dialogue, the problems, challenges, gaps and best practices (possibly minimum 4 practices from different economies) on innovative agricultural technologies and practices as well as how to strengthen regional cooperation in research and development in regenerative agriculture
The Dialogue also discusses the policy recommendations that enable innovation and capacity building of regenerative agriculture.
PPP Dialogue Report structure:
1. Background (including background and rationale to organize the PPP Dialogue, objectives, chairs and number of participants, key sections of the Dialogue)
2. Summary of keys points of the presentations delivered at the PPP Dialogue
3. Summary of discussions, issues addressed, agreements and conclusions of the Dialogue
4. A set of solutions and recommendations for policy makers in the regions.
The PPP Dialogue Report will be a minimum of 10 pages, excluding Annexes, with at least with 8 recommendations for policy makers in the regions, which will be later synthesized and included into the Analytical Report.
Outcome
1) A common understanding of regenerative agriculture among APEC economies is reached, which could be reflected into their policies, standards, or programs.
This Outcome will be measured through customized questions in the post-event survey, which will be conducted as the last item on the Workshop agenda.
2) Finance instruments and/or mechanism for the uptake of regenerative agriculture are identified
This Outcome will be measured through customized questions in the post-event survey, which will be conducted as the last item on the Workshop agenda.
3) A PPP collaborative approaches are discused to promote the engagement of private investors and financial institutions and public sectors in regenerative agriculture.
This Outcome will be measured through customized questions in the post-event survey, which will be conducted as the last item on the Workshop agenda.
Beneficiaries
Experts from co-sponsoring and selected APEC member economies are invited to join the project activities (e.g. technical review) will directly benefit from knowledge on promoting public and private partnerships for fostering an enabling environment for some regenerative agricultural systems such as Agroforestry, Polyculture and Rotational annual crops. .
All APEC member economies are invited to nominate representatives (management staff, policy makers, researchers, private sector, farmers, cooperatives, etc.) to attend project activities. The direct beneficiaries are:
- Government officials (state and local levels) who are in charge of agriculture development, particular in agri-food sectors, in all APEC economies.
- Associations, MSMEs, farmer cooperatives, etc. with relations to agri-food sectors.
- Regional and international organizations such as ASEAN, Grow Asia, IDH, FAO or academic institutions specializing in green and regenerative agriculture; nature-based agriculture and
- Long-term beneficiaries (who will benefit indirectly, through the application of recommendations and actions arising from the project outputs) are MSMEs, women- led MSMEs, rural women and rural communities working in agri-food sectors among others.
All beneficiaries are encouraged to participate in the consultation workshop and PPP Dialogue. The organizers will follow the principle of gender equity and an appropriate mix of inclusive, wide, balanced and professional participants.
The in-person consultation workshop with the total number of approximately 30 specialists will be self-funded. The tentative agenda will be as follows:
1. Registration & Networking
2. Opening Session
-Welcome and opening remarks
-Workshop objectives and expected outcomes
-Overview of consultation methodology (how feedback will be captured and used)
3. Overview of the Analytical Report
-Presentation by Report Team
4. Q&A Session and Plenary Discussion
-Questions of clarification from participants
-Open floor discussion
5. Way Forward & Validation
-Summary of key feedback received
-How feedback will be incorporated into the final report
