Regenerative agriculture
Our Roots of Net Zero (pdf, 14Mb) integrated climate and nature strategy and transition plan shows that nearly two-thirds of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from agriculture, so addressing these is essential for achieving our objectives.
Our aim is to help advance regenerative agriculture across the food industry – addressing environmental, climate and social aspects through an integrated approach. Reforming the way the world grows food will take time. That’s why we’re investing in supporting agricultural communities for the long term.
We work closely with suppliers and farmers to support the adoption of these practices, which is are intended to contribute to our net zero ambition and measurable outcomes to nature and communities.
Key terms explained
Net zero
In 2019, we announced our ambition to reach net zero GHG emissions by 2050 at the latest. In 2026, we updated our timebound plan, the Nestlé Roots of Net Zero (pdf, 14Mb), which underpins our Group's climate and nature strategy and acts as our transition plan aligned with a 1.5°C pathway as validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We will balance any remaining emissions through high-quality nature-based solutions, such as agroforestry, silvopasture and the restoration of forests and peatland. Read more about net zero.
Net zero
In 2019, we announced our ambition to reach net zero GHG emissions by 2050 at the latest. In 2026, we updated our timebound plan, the Nestlé Roots of Net Zero (pdf, 14Mb), which underpins our Group's climate and nature strategy and acts as our transition plan aligned with a 1.5°C pathway as validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We will balance any remaining emissions through high-quality nature-based solutions, such as agroforestry, silvopasture and the restoration of forests and peatland. Read more about net zero.
What is regenerative agriculture?
In line with the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI), Nestlé defines regenerative agriculture as an approach to farming which aims to conserve and restore natural resources, primarily soil, as well as water and biodiversity, while capturing carbon in soils and plant biomass, and to support farmers’ livelihoods. Examples of regenerative agriculture practices include reduced tillage and agroforestry.
Our Nestlé Agriculture Framework (pdf, 19Mb) sets out in detail our regenerative agriculture approach through five pillars: diverse cropping systems and livestock integration; collective and landscape action; soil health; biodiversity; and water security and quality.
We measure the effectiveness of our Nestlé Agriculture Framework by reference to the level of adoption of regenerative agriculture practices by farmers in our supply chains.
We are working closely with suppliers — equipping farmers with the tools and knowledge to implement regenerative agriculture practices in key ingredients supply chains.
Scaling regenerative agriculture
20.7
%
50
%
1 There has been a change in the key ingredients scope from 2026 onwards. The new scope is: cereals and grains; cocoa; coconut; dairy (derivatives and fresh milk); hazelnuts; green coffee; meat, poultry and eggs; soy; spices; sugar; vegetables; and vegetable fat oils (including palm oil).
2 This performance number differs from the one available in our Non-Financial Statement 2025 due to a change in the methodology during the first half of 2026. Now we consider ingredients volumes converted back to their original fresh state, instead of their processed form.
3 Learn more about our plans on this target (pdf, 14Mb).
Learn more in the Environmental Disclosures section of our 2025 Non-Financial Statement (pdf, 16Mb).
How we measure progress
In order to measure the progress against our target, we apply the following approaches:
- In regenerative agriculture projects, whenever feasible, each farm should be assessed. For farms not linked to such projects, when it is not possible to assess each farm due to the high number of farms, a sample of farms is assessed.
- In indirect sourcing via suppliers, when it is not possible to assess each farm, the supplier should cover as a minimum the number of farms equivalent to the volumes sold to Nestlé or a representative sample. Where full traceability is not feasible, like in the context of supplier-driven projects, the assessments should be carried out within the farming supply shed of the primary processor or first aggregator which supplies Nestlé (directly or indirectly).
A supply shed is a group of farms or suppliers in a specifically defined geography (for example, part of an agricultural cooperative) that Nestlé sources an ingredient or multiple ingredients from. This is for example the approach in case of a regenerative agriculture project on a cereal farm supplying a silo which Nestlé sources from but for which we don’t have traceability to farm level.
Our five pillars of regenerative agriculture
The model described in our Nestlé Agriculture Framework (pdf, 19Mb) brings regenerative agriculture to life through five pillars: diverse cropping systems and livestock integration; collective and landscape actions; soil health; biodiversity; and water security and quality.
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Biodiversity Regenerative agriculture practices can benefit biodiversity above and below the ground. Plant life can be enhanced with more diversified crops, intercropping or planting cover crops between harvests, while encouraging more abundant microbes, fungi and animal life – including invertebrates, insects and bird life – can contribute to improved soil nutrient cycles, pollination, fertility and productivity.
Ecosystems that exist in equilibrium can also enhance farmers’ resilience to climate change. In farms and landscapes Nestlé is supporting farmers to increase natural habitats on their land through agroforestry, hedgerows, riparian buffers, and other landscape features that support ecosystems, such as pollinators, and ecological connectivity across production landscapes.
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Water Through our water-management efforts, we aim to contribute to improved water availability and quality in parts of in our agricultural supply chain.
A more strategic approach to irrigation – from sprinkler, to drip and subsurface irrigation – better manages water evaporation compared to surface irrigation. Digital technology is also helping farms understand when land requires water, which can prevent over-use.
We also promote the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices that aim to reduce chemical farm inputs and optimize organic fertilization and biological pest control. These can reduce run-off and potential negative impacts on water quality.
Key terms explained
Ecological connectivity
Ecological connectivity can be defined as the degree of connection between the various natural environments present within a landscape, in terms of their components, spatial distribution and ecological functions.
Ecological connectivity
Ecological connectivity can be defined as the degree of connection between the various natural environments present within a landscape, in terms of their components, spatial distribution and ecological functions.
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Soil health To grow the food that we and our pets eat, we need arable land and healthy soil.
We can define healthy soil as the ability of the soil to sustain the productivity, diversity and environmental services of terrestrial ecosystems.
Healthy soils have a greater ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, because they have higher levels of organic matter than degraded soils. Plus, healthy soil can improve water management in two key ways: it has a higher water-holding capacity, which enhances resilience to drought, and it allows greater water infiltration, reducing runoff, erosion and flooding during heavy rains.
We are helping to scale up farming practices that can enhance soil health and increase soil organic matter by launching regenerative agriculture initiatives through our Farmer Connect program. Farmer Connect works closely with more than 500 000 farmers and 150 000 suppliers in certain Nestlé supply chains, including fresh milk, coffee, cereals and cocoa.
Practices include crop rotation, mulching, organic fertilizers and minimizing tillage.
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Diverse cropping systems and livestock integration Part of our commitment on regenerative agriculture involves integrating livestock and optimizing grazing in farming systems, when feasible and relevant.
This includes helping farmers use silvopasture – where trees are introduced into areas used for livestock grazing – alongside mixed farming of livestock and crops.
Potential benefits may include protection (for plant and animal life) from sun and wind, organic fertilization, support for water usage and quality, manure management, and habitats conducive to species such as insects and birdlife. We continue to work on accurately measuring and reporting these outcomes as part of our broader monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) approach.
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Collective and landscape actions Regenerative agriculture practices can look beyond individual farms to entire landscapes. This can support conserve natural resources through, for example, regional reforestation projects, protection of shared water resources and green ‘corridors’ aimed at fostering biodiversity.Read more
The benefits may extend not just to farmers, but to communities in terms of welfare, profitability and emissions. For example, Nestlé has been a long-standing partner in the Landscape Enterprise Network (LENS) initiative in the East of England, which has seen several CPG companies, local government and other stakeholders come together to reward ecosystem services provided by local farmers.
Key terms explained
Healthy soils: Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans. Healthy soils support clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes.
Healthy soils: Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans. Healthy soils support clean air and water, bountiful crops and forests, productive grazing lands, diverse wildlife, and beautiful landscapes.
Adoption of regenerative agriculture practices
To assess the maturity level of regenerative agriculture implementation, we created the Farm Assessment Tool (FAT). The tool consists of a set of regenerative agriculture practices and outcomes related to soil health, biodiversity, water, livestock and farm management. The approach has been tailored with crop-specific tools.
Each tool allows us to classify the maturity level of a farm’s implementation of regenerative agriculture practices as:
- Engaged in transition towards regenerative agriculture (Level 1)
- Advanced (Level 2)
- Leading (Level 3)
In addition to our tool, we also benchmark some of our suppliers’ assessment tools versus our own requirements in order to establish equivalences and use the results of these tools to measure regenerative agriculture achievements.
Farmers at the center of our model
Regenerative agriculture puts farmers at the center, supporting solutions that are right for their regions and crops. Shifting from traditional practices to new ways of farming can be difficult. We co-design practices with farmers to align with local agronomic, climatic and socioeconomic realities. This is built into a holistic approach that includes finance and incentives, training, and creating market demand for ingredients grown on farms that have adopted regenerative agriculture practices. This is especially important for smallholder farmers who may not have the financial resources to make these investments.
Coffee supply chains offer some good examples. To help smallholder coffee farmers tackle the impact of climate change and ensure coffee growing for future generations, Nestlé has been harnessing its agricultural science capabilities. Our plant scientists and agronomists have used traditional breeding methods to develop the new ‘Star 4’ Arabica coffee variety, which protects against issues like leaf rust while still offering the traditional characteristics of Brazilian coffee that buyers value. And we have been supporting rapid uptake of regenerative agriculture practices, with over 1600 Nestlé field staff delivering more than 100 000 training sessions.
Alongside these efforts, in Indonesia, we are piloting a weather insurance program for more than 800 smallholder farmers that supply coffee to the Nescafé brand. The program, in collaboration with climate insurance specialist Blue Marble, provides financial protection to help farmers cope with unpredictable weather patterns of rainfall and severe drought.
In our cocoa supply chain, our income accelerator program in Côte d’Ivoire is helping cocoa farming families to improve their incomes, while also improving their children’s access to education and supporting the local environment. Working with smallholder farmers to build skills and knowledge, they are using techniques that help improve the quality of soils, planting shade trees and developing new revenue streams by growing a wider variety of crops. We also give farmers access to novel techniques to get more yield from cocoa fruit, such as leveraging underused parts of the cocoa pod (the pulp and placenta) to produce chocolate flakes — unlocking more value from each fruit. This helps farmers get more yield, as well as value, from their cocoa harvests.
These efforts aim to support a just transition, where the shift to resilient production can strengthen communities’ livelihoods and minimizes negative impacts. We cannot do this alone. We need policymakers to work with the private sector to build strong ecosystems to encourage the adoption of regenerative agriculture and enable a just transition.
Key terms explained
Just transition Just transition refers to a framework aimed at making the shift towards regenerative food systems at scale as fair and inclusive as possible, creating decent work opportunities and minimizing negative impacts on farmers, workers, and communities. It encompasses a range of actions aimed at mitigating the negative social and economic impact of climate and agriculture action, while maximizing the benefits for all stakeholders, especially those most vulnerable (e.g., farmers, women, migrant workers), for example through building resilience, improving livelihoods and promoting human rights. It requires anticipating, preventing, and addressing the social and economic risks associated with climate and agricultural transitions, while supporting the fair sharing of benefits; such as, improved resilience, productivity, and income opportunities, particularly with smallholder farmers, workers, women, and migrant workers who may be disproportionately affected.
Just transition Just transition refers to a framework aimed at making the shift towards regenerative food systems at scale as fair and inclusive as possible, creating decent work opportunities and minimizing negative impacts on farmers, workers, and communities. It encompasses a range of actions aimed at mitigating the negative social and economic impact of climate and agriculture action, while maximizing the benefits for all stakeholders, especially those most vulnerable (e.g., farmers, women, migrant workers), for example through building resilience, improving livelihoods and promoting human rights. It requires anticipating, preventing, and addressing the social and economic risks associated with climate and agricultural transitions, while supporting the fair sharing of benefits; such as, improved resilience, productivity, and income opportunities, particularly with smallholder farmers, workers, women, and migrant workers who may be disproportionately affected.
Working towards a harmonized approach
In 2026, Nestlé joined more than 40 food and agriculture companies in supporting SAI Platform’s Regenerating Together Programme. This is a collaborative initiative from the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) platform to accelerate the adoption of regenerative agriculture through practical guidance, transition support and robust verification protocols. Co-developed by Nestlé and other companies with input from farmers, NGOs, academia and industry partners, the program aims to improve consistency, credibility and transparency across supply chains.
The Regenerating Together Programme encompasses a holistic approach to farming, inspired by agroecological principles. It supports the three key agricultural resources – soil, water and biodiversity – and aims to benefit farming communities.
Regenerative agriculture in action
Collaborating to implement regenerative agriculture practices
Nestlé France is working with different stakeholders to accelerate sourcing of key ingredients from farms transitioning to regenerative agriculture. The consortium – including Earthworm Foundation, Kermap, Inrae and Agro-Transfer, as well as local suppliers and cooperatives – is helping to implement regenerative agriculture practices, such as cover crops, crop rotation and reduced soil tillage. The project aims to increase the organic matter in soils, which increases fertility and yields.
Nestlé has launched two projects with Cargill and ETG | Beyond Beans to reduce carbon emissions in our cocoa supply chain. The initiatives promote agroforestry, regenerative agriculture and reforestation, aiming to distribute over two million shade trees in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. These efforts, involving close collaboration with local communities, are expected to reduce GHG emissions, while enhancing biodiversity and supporting farmers.
Farmers get behind dairy transition
The Nature por Ninho program in Brazil rewards farmers for adopting regenerative agriculture practices. The program’s 100+ farmers, who have reached Advanced (Level 2) status of our Nestlé Agriculture Framework (pdf, 19Mb), are reporting improvements in soil health and biodiversity, and a positive impact on water resources.
In the U.K., Nestlé has worked with First Milk — a 700-member dairy co-operative — for more than two decades and have together implemented an initiative grounded in soil health, biodiversity, and carbon reduction. Around 75 First Milk farmers, supplying milk for Nestlé’s chocolate and coffee products, are now applying regenerative agriculture practices such as rotational grazing, growing diverse species in pasture, reducing artificial fertilizers, integrating trees and hedgerows, and prioritizing animal welfare.
The focus is on supporting, training, and providing financial support to suppliers and farmers and ramping up initiatives. It’s all part of our commitment to advance regenerative agriculture.
