Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business, in collaboration with The India Climate Collaborative (ICC), held a daylong interactive workshop titled ‘Leveraging CSR for Natural Farming and Agroecology’ at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad campus.

 Prof. Ashwini Chhatre, Executive Director, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, extended a warm welcome to ICC representatives and participants, emphasising the broader goal of enhancing the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India's National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) through increased engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. He said that this presents an emerging opportunity to integrate and strengthen natural and organic farming, specifically agroecology, into CSR policies, ultimately improving farmers' livelihoods and increasing productivity.

 Dr. Aarushi Jain, Policy Director introduced Bharti Institute of Public Policy’s objectives and mission, encouraging participants to explore potential synergies. Dr Ajita Tiwari Padhi, Senior Specialist-NbS and Resilience, ICC outlined the organisation's background and this specific initiative, urging participants to discuss the required government support for policy changes in the agroecology CSR landscape. Prof. Anjal Prakash, Clinical Associate Professor (Research), Bharti Institute of Public Policy introduced the agenda of the Roundtable aimed at advancing natural farming and agroecology within CSR practices and promoting nationwide engagement with CSR firms in this endeavour. The workshop aimed to foster momentum for natural farming in corporate social responsibility initiatives through interactive discussions and strategic commitments.

During the second half of the workshop, Prof. Anjal Prakash began by gathering CSR stakeholders' ideas regarding existing and new ways of natural farming. The group extensively discussed whether changes to Schedule VII of the Companies Act were required to encourage more CSRs to engage in the activity proactively. The conclusion of this discussion was that no immediate changes were required as they could lead to misunderstandings.

The goal of the final task for the participants was to locate any implementation gaps in the natural farming space. The representatives from ICC spoke persuasively about the current state of natural farming practices and their shortcomings. "Agroecology takes agricultural interventions to the next level. When we talk about agricultural interventions, we think of one thing. We want to address the issues of nutritional security. We must establish thorough frameworks, partner with others, and attract government funding. Adopt a similar strategy for achievement. Locate partners and success factors. We should begin by combining the best practices from across the CSR natural farming landscape and create an exhaustive framework that forces everyone to collaborate," they said.

The participants in the Roundtable were from various organisations, including Ambuja Cement Foundation, BAIF Development Research Foundation, UNDP, HDFC ERGO General Insurance, Axis Bank Foundation, SBI Card, JSW Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank, NABFOUNDATION, Department of CPPGG, Government of Uttarakhand, ITC Kolkata, Cummins India Foundation, Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, Bharat Agroecology Fund, Hindustan Zinc, and India Climate Collaborative.