Analysis of USDA’s Regenerative Agriculture Initiative (RAI)

In December 2025, USDA announced the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative (RAI), positioning it as a significant new investment in regenerative agriculture at a moment of major transition for federal conservation funding. The RAI is not a new program but instead a repackaging of existing USDA conservation programs, EQIP and CSP. Nor does it designate new funding towards either of these programs and the practices they target. It will likely function as a priority national funding pool producers can apply to with some minor modifications to requirements and the application process. Efforts by the prior administration to increase funding to key regenerative practices and the regenerative agriculture community more broadly through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) would have provided greater funding overall in FY2026 and beyond.

WHAT IS THE RAI?

The Regenerative Agriculture Initiative (RAI), also called the Regenerative Pilot Program (RPP), is a program announced by Secretary Rollins on December 10 2025. The press release from USDA describes it as a $700 million pilot program for FY2026 focused on helping farmers transition to regenerative practices. Funding for the program comes through the NRCS’s EQIP and CSP programs.