Resilience revolution with regenerative and resilient agriculture as the foundation

SCIENCE and policy.

Those are vital components to establish the foundation for the resilience revolution that will transform the agriculture sector into a regenerative food system.

I have been a strong advocate for applying scientific and science-based solutions to level up the country’s agriculture sector, with the primary objectives of attaining production efficiency, and environmental resiliency. The desired outcome should be the sustained provision of affordable and nutritious food to all Filipinos.

Here are the components of the Science Agenda for a climate-resilient agriculture: Genomics and breeding; soil and water health; and precision technology.

Under genomics and breeding, the aim is to develop stress-tolerant crop varieties that can withstand drought, flooding, and extreme heat. This is being done in many countries including the Philippines but needs to be stepped up.

For soil and water health, we should utilize research on soil microbiomes and balanced fertilization to restore degraded soil and increase carbon sequestration.

For precision technology, there is a need to apply big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize resource utilization and monitor agricultural threats in real time.

The overall goal for the Science Agenda is to harness innovation, biotechnology, and data-driven solutions to strengthen agricultural resilience and sustainability.

When getting scientific and science-based solutions to the ground, the transformation engine is Science to Scale, which has five components: discover; enable; practice; markets; and scale.

Under discover, we generate knowledge to solve real-world challenges, which should be translated to practice or adoption on the ground.

Under markets, farmers must be linked to sustainable and inclusive markets, eliminating layers of middlemen and trading intermediaries.

To scale, we must aim to deliver lasting impacts for people and the planet.

And supportive policy forms part of this to help attract investments and foster cooperation, among many others.

What is very clear in the Science Agenda is innovation will fail to make an impact until it reaches sustainable scale.

Policy support

For science to propel the transformation or paradigm shift to a resilient and regenerative food production system, there is a need for key policy directions. The absence of that will surely result in technologies that have little or no application on the ground, and do not benefit humanity in general.

Here are the four components of the policy direction: Smart technology and AI; targeted research and development; financial alignment for smallholders; and institutional collaboration.

There should be no debate or explanation on the need to apply and utilize AI in agriculture and food production. Among others, AI can automate manual tasks, predict weather and yields, and optimize utilization of resources such as water and soil.

Digital early warning systems should also be widely deployed to assist farmers on changing climactic and weather conditions.

The expanded utilization of drones will also do wonders for agriculture, including monitoring field conditions for crop health and potential pestilence and outbreak of disease.

For targeted research and development, there is a need to increase public spending for the development of climate-resilient crop varieties that can withstand extreme heat, drought, and flooding.

For financial alignment for smallholders, public institutions must prioritize small-scale farmers through the provision of affordable credit, investment, and resources to enable them to adopt sustainable farming practices.

And we urgently need institutional collaboration to strengthen partnerships among government agencies, local governments, and private companies to accelerate the sharing and adoption of agricultural innovations.

The overall goal of the four components – smart technology and AI, targeted research and development, financial alignment for smallholders, and institutional collaboration – is to build a more resilient, technology-driven, and inclusive agriculture sector that is capable of adapting to climate change and challenges.

The 5Ps

I have always advocated or sought for concerted effort among stakeholders and players in agriculture, and the same applies in transforming our food system into one that is resilient and regenerative.

We have five components here: public, private, producers, people, and partnership.

The public component refers to the government, whose task is to provide policy, infrastructure, research, and public goods such as research papers and government-owned lands that can be opened for cultivation of certain crops.

Meanwhile, the private sector can take the lead in providing capital, technology, access to markets, and innovation. Globally, it is still the private sector that leads in pushing the development and application of science in agriculture and food production.

For producers, they should develop knowledge and entrepreneurship, and generate investments. Action should also be at the forefront to transform agriculture into a resilient and regenerative food production system.

And besides the producers, the other stakeholders who should be part of the concerted and collective effort, which we refer here as people: Women, youth, communities, and the consumers themselves.

Overall, the partnerships should breed trust, establish the capability and willingness to share risks, and make shared investments, which should result in shared results.

The shared results should be mutual:

– Farmers increasing their production and earning more;

– Private sector companies expanding their operations and profitability;

– Government gaining more traction on rural development and inclusive growth;

– Consumers getting more access to affordable and nutritious food;

– Local communities becoming more prosperous;

– The environment able to regenerate and becoming more productive and resilient to climate challenges.

The 5Ps stand out here as the engine of implementation to attain a resilient and regenerative food production system.

And the call to action is to build an agriculture sector that is productive, regenerative, resilient, inclusive, market-oriented, digitalized, and profitable is now.

In doing so, we are not merely preparing agriculture for the future; rather, we are building the agriculture for the future.

What I have discussed in this two-part column-series were presented by yours truly during the Icrisat Visionary Talks as part of its 2026 Drylands Congress held in Sept. 10 to 12, 2026, in New Delhi, India.