Summary
Agriculture sits at the intersection of the world's most urgent development challenges, including food security, jobs, climate change, biodiversity loss, and rural livelihoods. Regenerative agriculture offers a transformative pathway that goes beyond reducing harm: it actively restores natural systems while maintaining and improving agricultural productivity. IFC's Framework reflects a growing recognition that the private sector has a critical role to play in accelerating this transition, particularly in emerging markets where smallholder farmers and agribusiness supply chains face compounding environmental and economic pressures.
The Framework establishes a common language and a set of minimum criteria, at both the program and farm level, that define what it means for an IFC client engagement to be credibly and publicly recognized as "regenerative agriculture" while acknowledging that agribusiness clients have diverse starting points and priorities for implementing regenerative agriculture strategies in their business models. This approach ensures consistency and flexibility to accommodate the diversity of farming systems, geographies, and value chains in which IFC operates. The Framework is designed to be applicable across IFC's investment and advisory services, providing a unified approach that clients, investors, and stakeholders can trust and build upon at any stage of an agribusiness’ regenerative journey.
To accelerate adoption, IFC will use the Framework with clients to identify opportunities for bridging the financial and technical gap between conventional and regenerative practices. This approach recognizes that transitioning to regenerative agriculture often requires upfront investment, capacity building, and risk-sharing — areas where IFC can add distinctive value as a development finance institution. By combining clear criteria with the potential for targeted financial incentives, IFC can catalyze systemic change across agribusiness value chains and contribute to a more resilient food and fiber production system.
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