Catalyzing Investments to Scale Up Climate-Resilient Agriculture: India Landscape Accelerator Launch

On 18 February, during the inaugural Mumbai Climate Week, senior agri-food industry leaders from 24 organizations, including 12 companies, convened to launch the India Landscape Accelerator (ILA). During this interactive roundtable, C-suite executives and sector experts explored solution pathways to mobilize public–private partnerships in support of state- and landscape-level transition plans. They also reflected on how the ILA can unlock value and strengthen resilience across agricultural value chains.

About the ILA 

The ILA is a flagship initiative under the COP28 Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes (AARL), co-chaired by High Level Champions, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and WBCSD, with support from the COP Presidency. As a private sector-led, multistakeholder platform, the ILA brings together private sector actors, governments, development banks, other financiers, and NGOs to catalyze investments that generate landscape-level outcomes across farmer livelihoods, GHG emissions, biodiversity, soil health, water, and food and nutrition security. 

At its core, the Accelerator’s mission is to drive investments toward transforming key Indian agricultural states and landscapes into more productive and climate-resilient agri-food systems. 

The Challenge 

India plays a pivotal role in global agriculture: it is a global leader in milk and pulse production, a top exporter of rice, and the second‑largest producer of several major crops including wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, fruit, vegetables, and cotton (World Bank Group). With nearly three-quarters of rural households dependent on agriculture, most of them smallholders, the sector’s stability is essential for national prosperity. 

Yet climate risks are rising sharply. Increasing temperatures, erratic rainfall, extreme weather events, and declining yields are disrupting food security and rural incomes. In fact, productivity of key crops such as rain-fed rice, wheat, and maize in India is projected to fall by around 20% by 2050 (ICAR). These challenges are compounded by low input efficiency, soil degradation, and water scarcity, all of which are contributing to persistently lower average yields. For business, this translates into threatened productivity and increased price volatility, affecting supply chain stability and long-term business operations. 

The Opportunity 

Addressing these risks requires targeted public and private sector investment in climate-smart, resource-efficient, and resilience‑building approaches. Strategic collaborations through blended finance and public‑private partnerships can unlock scalable solutions that safeguard food systems, enhance farmer livelihoods, and build resilience across agricultural value chains. For businesses, investing in these efforts reduces supply chain risks, ensures long-term resource security, and opens new opportunities for growth in sustainable and premium markets – making climate-resilient agriculture a strategic advantage. 

The Accelerator’s Approach 

Building on the proven Landscape Accelerator Brazil (LAB) model under AARL, the ILA has defined three interconnected objectives to guide its work: 

• Opportunity sizing: Evaluate the landscape of climate-resilient agriculture programs in India and size the opportunity from collaborating at greater scale and speed.  
• Investable transition plans: Build multi-stakeholder alignment around state‑ and landscape‑level transition plans that can scale climate-resilient agriculture. 
• Public–private partnerships: Mobilize state-level coalitions to co‑invest in landscape-based transitions. 

Insights from previous consultation sessions and the Mumbai roundtable made clear that the ILA can serve as a trusted, pre‑competitive space where companies align on shared sustainability goals, share learnings & best practices, and coordinate efforts. A key focus will be leveraging evidence‑based modeling to inform and scale interventions, while keeping smallholders at the center of all investment planning. 

What’s Next 

Following the official launch at Mumbai Climate Week, the ILA team will begin evaluating the opportunity for landscape-level collaborations across priority value chains to shape robust, investable transition plans for climate‑resilient agriculture. Parallel efforts will focus on partnering with state stakeholders to strengthen public‑private coalitions capable of unlocking investment in low‑emission crops and resilient supply chains at both state and landscape levels.