Restoring Degraded Landscapes Can Improve Rural Incomes: WRI India

Restoring degraded landscapes can serve as a viable strategy to improve rural incomes, provided the restoration is planned and steered by local communities with an emphasis on livelihoods and the sustainable use of natural resources. According to Ruchika Singh, Executive Programme Director - Food, Land and Water at WRI India, nearly half of India's agricultural soils suffer from poor health and low soil organic carbon, impacting productivity due to factors such as excessive chemical fertilizer use, crop monocultures, and soil erosion.

WRI India has been collaborating with district administrations and local communities in regions like Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district to restore water and greenery to farms and forests. Similarly, in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, the organization is working with tribal villages in the Korchi block on plans to restore local forests, farms, and water sources. These experiences point to the importance of an integrated landscape approach that connects ecological restoration with agricultural productivity, livelihood security, and local enterprise development.

Practical interventions implemented in these regions include bringing rice fallows under cultivation, promoting agri-horti forestry, scaling home gardens for nutritional security, adopting integrated nutrient and pest management, and managing water sources. In Sidhi, restoration initiatives facilitated wage employment for over 13,000 households through government schemes. Furthermore, the initiative helped establish a bamboo value chain through a farmer producer company, Gopadbanas, which features over 400 shareholder farmers and links them directly with Orient Paper Mills, reducing dependence on intermediaries. Value chains for jackfruit, mahua, aonla, moringa, and palash are also under development.

Singh noted that landscape restoration becomes an attractive investment opportunity for private businesses when it moves beyond isolated projects to create viable business models, reliable supply chains, and opportunities for value addition. Assessments in Sidhi identified the potential to develop over 3,000 micro-enterprises, generating employment for approximately 30,000 people. In Gadchiroli, opportunities include strengthening forward and backward linkages for agricultural and minor forest produce, expanding processing, and investing in infrastructure such as bio-resource centres.

To transition land restoration into an economic engine over the next five years, the focus must shift toward building restoration value chains that create economic value while nurturing nature. According to WRI India, the restoration economy needs to evolve through stages of fragmented innovation, marketplace building, and mainstream maturity. Government support, civil society engagement, and private sector investment through blended finance structures and concessional loans will be essential to de-risk these innovations and scale the sector.

"The integration of ecological restoration with local enterprise development presents a compelling model for sustainable rural growth. By building formal value chains around minor forest and agricultural produce, local communities and farmer producer companies can secure reliable market linkages and reduce reliance on intermediaries. For businesses and investors, this sector offers scalable opportunities through structured micro-enterprises and blended finance models that align environmental sustainability with commercial viability." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes