Pakistan Country Climate and Development Report - Annex 4 - Lessons from a Regenerative Agriculture Pilot with Wheat

Jul 19, 2026

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Annex 4 synthesizes lessons from a 2021/22 wheat regenerative agriculture pilot conducted at Pakistan’s National Agriculture Research Center in Islamabad. The trial compared four land-management arms, ranging from regenerative practices using raised beds, organic mulch, and no chemical inputs to prevalent flatland wheat practices with fertilizer and pesticides. Results highlight similar per-acre profits across regenerative and conventional options due to lower input costs, while improved precision planting could substantially raise yields. The annex also notes strong weed and pest outcomes under regenerative mulch and discusses resilience during an exceptional harvest heatwave.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Highlights

Pilot design and treatments

Water management and agronomic caveats

Key results and implications

Public Disc losure Authorized PAKISTAN COUNTRY CLIMATE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT Annex 4 Lessons from a Regenerative Agriculture Pilot with Wheat Regenerative agriculture practices (RAPs) hold the promise of restoring land, reducing the need for irrigation water and reducing costs of production for farmers. However, scaling up such practices will require a shift in incentives and policy as well as the development of systematic and context speciﬁc knowledge and careful evidence building. Pakistan has much to do on this front, but a small pilot done recently with wheat at the National Agriculture Research Center (NARC) in Islamabad provides an interesting case study that shows the potential gainsfrom a shift to less input intensive farming.1 Pub lic Disc losure Authorized The pilot was done in 2021/22 Rabi season as a ﬁeld-based experiment which had four arms--four plots of 3 acres each, with similar dimensions, were sown for each treatment, using the Borlaug 2016 variety of wheat. Sowing on all plots was done on December 26, 2021. In the ﬁrst arm (T1), a speciﬁc set of regenerative practices was used. This included the use of raised beds 2 with organic mulch (rice straw), the use of a locally manufactured pneumatic precision planter and no chemical fertilizer, pesticide or weedicide use. Before constructing the raised beds, the hard pan was broken.3 In the second arm (T2) all the same land management practices were used as in T1 but there was no mulching and chemical fertilizer instead, pesticide and weedicide were applied as usually practiced. The third arm (T3) and the fourth arm (T4) used prevalent wheat practices in Pakistan, where seeds are sown on ﬂat land with a drill (T3) or broadcast (T4) and fertilizer, pesticides, and weedicides are applied. In T2, T3, and T4, an equal quantity of pesticide, fertilizer, and weedicides were used. All four treatments were provided with an equal amount of water, once by ﬂood irrigation, and twice through rainfall during the crop cycle. An important caveat to the results of the pilot is that the quality of the precision planter used was low. It was intended to use 5kg 4 of seed per acre, as recommended, but approximately half of this was left in the planter each time. So only 2.64 kg of seed was used per acre in T1 and T2 . This was reﬂected in the germination rate which was about 44 percent for T1 and 52.5 percent for T2 . In contrast, T3 and T4 used 50 kg of seed per acre and all treatments other than T1 used 1 bag of Di-ammonium Phosphate fertilizer and 1 bag of urea/acre (50 kg). Table 1 presents the results of the pilot. Highlights 1. Despite 44 percent precision inT1, the yield shortfall inT1 is just 15 percent compared to T3 and T4 . 2. There is virtually no difference in proﬁt per acre between T1, T3 and T4, even with the lower yield due to lower input costs. 1 2 3 4 The pilot was done in collaboration with Pro Nature Alliance Research and Development (PNA) under the supervision of the Member Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change, Planning Commission. 42-inch raised beds with 18-inch water furrows. 42-inch was selected as the size of the raised beds as it is the space between the two tires of the tractor that is most common in Pakistan. The space under the tractor tires forms the 18-inch water furrows, where water is retained due to soil compaction. In this manner, 70% of the total area is taken up by raised beds and only 30% is taken up by water furrows immediately leading to a 70% decrease in water usage versus ﬂood irrigation on ﬂat land. The formation of a hardpan near the surface can reduce usable soil depth by impeding the drainage of water and restricting the growth of plant roots. This is not something that needs to be done annually. It may need to be redone in the initial years of plot conversion but is compatible with no-to low-till land management. This was based on 9x9 inch row to row and 7x7 inch seed to seed distance, total n

FAQs

What treatments were compared in the regenerative agriculture wheat pilot?

The pilot used four arms: T1 applied regenerative practices with raised beds, organic mulch, and no chemical fertilizer or pesticides; T2 used similar land management but without mulching and with standard chemical inputs; T3 used prevalent drill-based wheat on flat land with fertilizer and chemicals; T4 used broadcast sowing with fertilizer and chemicals.

How did the pilot’s regenerative practices affect yield and profit per acre?

Despite a lower germination rate in T1 due to a low-quality precision planter, the yield shortfall in T1 was about 15% compared with T3 and T4. Profit per acre was virtually similar between T1, T3, and T4 because regenerative options reduced input costs.

Why does the annex emphasize the precision planter’s accuracy?

The precision planter left roughly half the intended seed in the planter, reducing effective seeding and lowering germination. NARC estimates indicate that a more accurate planter could significantly increase T1 yields and double farmer profits per acre under higher precision.

Jul 19, 2026

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