Food, Land and Water
Accelerating India’s transition towards a land-based restoration economy for sustainable and resilient food and land use systems
WRI India’s Food, Land and Water program aims to inform India’s transition towards sustainable and resilient food and land use systems through interdisciplinary nature-based solutions such as landscape restoration and sustainable agriculture. To catalyze this transition through a systems change approach, we work with equitable strategies that can help India achieve its climate and development goals. Benefitting people, nature and climate, land-based restoration economy can mitigate climate impacts, conserve biodiversity, provide more resilient jobs and livelihoods, and improve food and nutritional security. Our work also includes developing collaborative strategies for reducing food loss and food waste, with a focus on circular food systems in India.
We envision healthier landscapes and resilient communities and work with an ‘inform, enable and invest’ strategy:
Inform equitable land use strategies based on robust evidence and analysis at national, subnational and landscape levels,
Enable action by bridging capacity gaps, reducing barriers, monitoring progress and mobilizing collective action with diverse stakeholders,
Unlocking finance for landscape restoration and sustainable agriculture, and food loss and food waste, through public funding convergence and private investments.
With an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens, WRI India’s Food, Land and Water program works with diverse stakeholders including governments, businesses, civil society partners and local community groups for building a land-based restoration economy for people, nature, and climate in India.
Stewarding WRI India’s commitment to people-centred solutions, our work is composed of the following interacting pillars:
Produce
Focused on restoring agricultural lands across India, the ‘Produce’ team within WRI India’s Food, Land and Water program works towards informing the transition to sustainable and resilient food production systems across India. This can improve farm productivity, meet the country’s increasing food demands and nutritional requirements as well as secure incomes and livelihoods for communities dependent on forests, farmlands and common lands across India.
Protect & Restore
Striving to build a land-based restoration economy for India, the ‘Protect & Restore’ team within WRI India’s Food, Land and Water program works towards protecting open natural ecosystems and harnessing India’s restoration potential through a systems change approach to ensure that India’s landscapes are governed fairly and managed well.
Reduce
Reducing food loss and food waste is a crucial step towards transitioning to circular food systems. It holds enormous potential to improve food and nutrition security for people, alleviate pressure on climate, as well as on water and land resources, and improve incomes and livelihoods.
