Closing the Financing Gap for Soil Health
Background
Healthy soils underpin our food systems and our climate resilience. They are the foundation of resilient food systems, ecosystem restoration, and climate action.
Yet, despite growing recognition of their importance, soil health remains among the most underfinanced assets in the global sustainability agenda. Financing is fragmented, insufficient, and often out of reach for those who need it most.
At COP30, CA4SH and partners convened a session to unpack why the soil health finance gap persists and how to close it, bringing together diverse stakeholders to examine where public, private, and blended capital can most effectively drive soil health outcomes.
This collaboration opportunity builds on that discussion to co-develop practical, evidence-based recommendations to unlock soil health finance at scale.
The Finance Gap
Smallholder farmers—who manage roughly a quarter of global agricultural land and produce more than 30% of the world’s food—face high upfront costs and delayed returns when adopting regenerative practices. Yields often dip before long-term benefits emerge, leaving farmers without the financial cushion to bridge the gap.
Less than 1% of global climate finance currently reaches smallholder farmers. Of that, only a fraction is explicitly directed toward soil health. Meanwhile, global restoration targets require hundreds of billions of dollars per year in new investment to reach scale.
Youth and women play central roles in stewarding soils, yet often lack access to capital. Closing the soil health finance gap requires ensuring that those most vulnerable to climate change are not bearing all expenses and burden.
While regenerative agriculture is gaining attention, most finance remains concentrated at large-scale or corporate levels. Bridging this imbalance requires:
Better risk-sharing
Clearer soil metrics
Stronger partnerships across sectors
Enabling policy incentives that de-risk investments
These solutions need to be invested in at scale.
How to Contribute
CA4SH invites members and partners to contribute to this agenda by:
Sharing innovative finance models and mechanisms
Contributing insights on public-private and blended finance approaches
Providing evidence on risk reduction and soil metrics
Identifying policy incentives that can catalyze investment
Supporting coordinated advocacy to elevate soil health within climate and finance negotiations
This collaboration will help identify actionable pathways that connect soil metrics, policy incentives, and investment flows, ensuring resources can reach farmers on the ground.
Timeline
More information coming soon
Contact
To contribute or request further information, please contact:
Dr Leigh Winowiecki
Co-Lead, CA4SH
L.A.Winowiecki@cifor-icraf.org
Daniela Solis
Coordination & Events Lead, CA4SH
coordination@coalitionforsoilhealth.org
