How soil can help save farming

Lora Kátai is a young farmer in Hungary, where agriculture covers more than half the land. The fertile plains between the Danube and the Tisza rivers have helped feed Europe for centuries, but now those plains are drying out. Drought is becoming more frequent and intense, affecting up to 85% of the country.

In South Western India, coffee grower Geetha Thekkeurubil Kumaran found the soil was 'no longer responding.' It's a familiar story for farmers across the globe.

Geetha Thekkeurubil Kumaran examines her coffee cherries.

The ground is shifting

Soil, the overlooked origin of every meal, is in crisis. Around a third of the world's soils are already degraded, with billions of tons lost to erosion every year. A third of human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are linked to food, creating a feedback loop that accelerates the climate shocks that are now threatening harvests. 

To sustain the world's food needs, farming has to change. But the question is how, and who does it? 

At 25, Lora is a good 30 years below the average age of a farmer in the EU, where only 12% of farmers are under 40. The world's farming population is aging and not enough young people are stepping in to replace them.

Lora Kátai studies the quality of cover-crop seed. 

A different kind of farming

Regenerative agriculture is an approach that, depending on local conditions and practices, can help improve soil health, support biodiversity, reduce reliance on synthetic chemical inputs and improve water retention.

With advice from Nestlé agronomists, coffee grower Geetha adopted regenerative agriculture practices including replacing synthetic fertilizers with compost and planting shade trees to boost biodiversity. "I'm no longer just responding to crises; I'm not just growing coffee," she says. "I'm growing soil. I'm growing trees."

Through the Purina Europe Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) program, Lora has been putting similar practices into action.

It’s not just theory – I can see it in the fields.

Lora Kátai, farmer, Hungary  

"Through LENs, I've come to understand how practices like cover crops or reduced tillage help the soil store more water and build resilience against extreme weather," says Lora. "It's not just theory, I can see it in the fields."

Growing the next generation

For regenerative agriculture to scale, it needs to reach more young farmers like Lora. That's where Nestlé's agripreneurship program comes in. A pillar of the Nestlé needs YOUth initiative established in 2013, in 2025 alone it reached 12 747 young agripreneurs across the globe. 

It trained more than 2 600 young people in Brazil, while in Pakistan, the Farmer Connect initiative supports young dairy agripreneurs. In Türkiye, we have launched an agripreneurship program with universities, delivering training to more than 1 200 motivated young people in eight cities so far.

Farming has long been seen as a livelihood of last resort. Agripreneurship repositions it as a skilled, future-oriented profession that blends regenerative agriculture land management with entrepreneurial thinking. Real role models like Lora are part of how that story gets told.

Collective action

One company can't achieve systemic change alone. That's why Nestlé is building an ecosystem of partnerships that spans education, technology and farming communities.

A partnership with digital platform Goodwall uses gamified learning to open agriculture as a career path for young people who have never set foot on a farm.

On the ground, farmer-owned cooperatives are key. In the UK, a 22-year partnership with First Milk includes supporting 80 British dairy farmers to help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve soil health and build long-term resilience. In France, the Sols Vivants (Living Soils) program is helping arable farmers transition to regenerative agriculture practices in the country's agricultural heartland.

Soil doesn't recover overnight. But the prize of long-term, systemic change is significant: healthier soil that can support more reliable food production; farming careers aimed at attracting the next generation; and supply chains intended to better withstand climate shocks affecting agriculture. For farmers like Lora, that future is worth working towards, one season at a time.