Building Smallholder Resilience through Regenerative Agriculture in Central Kalimantan

Authors: Dyah Retnani Nurhidayati and Amalia Paramitha

Why Regenerative Agriculture for independent, oil palm smallholders?

In Central Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo, smallholders are at the heart of sustainable landscapes. Yet they face growing challenges: rising production costs, declining soil fertility, and increasing vulnerability to climate change. Much of the cost pressure on farmers comes from their reliance on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and labour. These inputs have risen in price faster than farmers’ incomes, squeezing already thin margins and making it harder to sustain productivity.

Regenerative agriculture offers a pathway forward. More than a set of farming techniques, regenerative agriculture focuses on restoring ecosystems, enhancing biodiversity, and strengthening farmers’ social and economic resilience.

In Seruyan District, Kaleka and local farmers are demonstrating how this approach can bring about meaningful change. The initiative was not framed as a top-down intervention, but rather as a collaborative effort, where farmers tested practices such as composting, intercropping, and reduced use of synthetic fertilizers.

Our farmer, Mr. Majianto from Bangkal Village, practices regenerative agriculture on his oil palm farm.

Early Results from the Field

Since 2023, Kaleka has been working with smallholders in Seruyan to adopt regenerative agriculture practices. The work has been supported by Seventh Generation, an American company that produces environmentally friendly cleaning, paper, and personal care products, as well as its parent company, Unilever. Their support includes financing pilot activities, training process, as well as implementation and monitoring.

While still in its early stages, several encouraging results have already emerged:

• Reduced fertilizer costs – the use of organic fertilizers and compost has reduced fertilizer expenses by about 24.7%.

• Improved soil health – soil pH increased from 4.97 to 6.22, moving closer to neutral. The C/N ratio was enhanced by nearly 25%, and earthworm counts increased by more than 30/m², indicating healthier ecosystems underground.

• Diversified incomes – intercropping with bananas, vegetables, and other food crops between palm rows provides household food and generates additional revenue.

• Stronger social networks – farmer learning forums strengthen trust, support, and collaboration. By seeing each other's fields and solving problems together, farmers view regenerative agriculture as a shared endeavor, which accelerates adoption.

These outcomes demonstrate that regenerative agriculture not only improves farming techniques but also strengthens the social and economic foundations of smallholder communities.

Selected indicator changes after one year of regenerative agriculture implementation.

Part of a Broader Initiative

Regenerative agriculture on smallholder oil palm farms in Seruyan is one part of a broader, jurisdictional initiative to protect and regenerate nature. Improving soil, crops, and farmers’ practices is essential, but farm-level action by itself cannot deliver large-scale gains in biodiversity, water protection, or reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why the work in Seruyan is embedded in a broader landscape and jurisdictional approach.

This approach allows sustainability to be measured not only on individual farms but across the entire district, in line with Unilever’s regenerative agriculture indicators, which include soil quality, improved water quality, recovery of habitats and species diversity, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and stronger livelihoods - from farmer income and training to women’s participation and farmer associations.

By working through the district-wide sustainable village program, Gawi Bapakat, we have made sure that regenerative agriculture supports and aligns with landscape initiatives to protect and regenerate nature.  Gawi Bapakat is a collaborative village movement designed to guide villages in Seruyan toward self-reliance and sustainability. Through this platform, communities gain access to support and guidance aligned with their capacities across economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

It also helps ensure that local priorities, such as fair pricing, land conflict resolution, legal access, ecological restoration, and zero-burning agriculture, are incorporated into broader landscape and district-level planning.

On the ground, farmers are experimenting with practices such as organic fertilizer production, agroforestry in smallholder oil palm plantations, and livelihood diversification. These efforts are intentionally linked to landscape-scale actions, including restoring degraded areas, enhancing food security through diversified farming systems, and conserving forests through high-value non-timber products such as patchouli, palm sugar, and coffee.

By explicitly linking farm-level interventions with landscape-level strategies, the Seruyan initiative ensures that regenerative agriculture delivers meaningful improvements in biodiversity, water quality, and greenhouse gas reductions, while also strengthening livelihoods.

Lessons for the Global Network

Before developing its own methodology, the Kaleka team visited Wild Asia, a SAN member, at several smallholder sites in Sabah, Malaysia. The visit offered direct insight into how regenerative agriculture is implemented and supported through guidance and incentives.

The team observed the production of solid and liquid organic fertilizers from plantation, household, and fisheries wastes, as well as bio-briquettes. They also saw how Wild Asia incentivizes farmers through planting seeds like ginger. The visit introduced soil health monitoring, including indicators such as organic matter, earthworm counts, bulk density, porosity, and electrical conductivity, along with observations of leaf condition, pests, and disease. One notable practice was the use of compost tea as both fertilizer and natural pest and disease control.

From the Seruyan experience, three key takeaways can be drawn for SAN members and partners worldwide:

1. Communities at the center of change - success depends on smallholders’ sense of ownership.

2. Regenerative agriculture is more than technical - while scientific data is valuable, what makes regenerative agriculture take root is trust, dialogue, and collective decision-making. Gawi Bapakat and farmer learning groups ensure that farmers’ voices remain central, helping shape practices that are both sustainable and locally relevant.

3. Multi-level integration - connecting village-level practices with district-level governance creates pathways for scaling impact.

Our farmers harvest and prune oil palms to maintain a healthy, productive plantation.

Conclusion

Transforming food systems toward sustainability takes time and consistency. The Seruyan experience demonstrates that when smallholders are given the space to lead, change can emerge from the ground up.

Even within a single year, improvements have been observed in soil and water health, biodiversity, carbon emissions, crop yields, and household income. These early results underscore the importance of sustained investment in farmer-led innovation, jurisdictional collaboration, and landscape restoration, ensuring that local actions support broader sustainability and climate goals.

Regenerative agriculture is not just about restoring soils; it also strengthens communities, builds fairer relationships, and ensures that sustainable development benefits those most affected.