At a time when farmers across the world are facing challenges of climate, environmental crisis, and growing agrarian distress, the BRICS countries are getting ready to reach out to them with a wide range of scientific, technological, and knowledge-based interventions.
Against this backdrop, the New Delhi Joint Declaration proposes a collective yet meaningful leap. The Declaration unveils four agricultural initiatives aimed at making farming more resilient, productive, and long-term sustainable.
The declaration, indeed, marks a new chapter in global agriculture, placing farmers at the heart of the BRICS agenda under India’s presidency.
The subject scientists term the step a timely move toward cooperation beyond policy statements, toward sharing technology, traditional knowledge, and practical farming solutions. The Delhi Declaration was unanimously adopted on September 12, 2026, during the first day of the 18th BRICS Summit, held at Bharat Mandapam, India.
Some of the silent features of the document clearly outline the urgency of pooling knowledge, research, and new technologies to build a response to the risks the farmers face. Erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, droughts, and shrinking biodiversity in the countries have already caused severe damage to cropping patterns and productivity and affected the livelihoods of millions of people.
Four agricultural initiatives include the establishment of the BRICS Agricultural Research Platform (BRICS-ARP) to promote cooperation and sharing of agricultural research, technology, and knowledge for the benefit of farms. A BRICS Agriculture Research Network will be established to connect agricultural research institutions across BRICS countries.
The plan also includes creating a BRICS Agricultural Cooperation Working Group to address issues such as food security, sustainable agriculture, and agricultural development. Also, a grain exchange program has been proposed to strengthen cooperation in grain trade, food security, and agricultural markets. Under this, the leaders also approved an agreement to set up a farmer-centric BRICS AGRIN for sharing best practices.
“These initiatives broadly focus on food security, sustainable agriculture, agricultural technology, research, and resilience to climate change and even cover areas like technology interventions in agroforestry, fisheries, and aquaculture,” said an official in India’s agriculture ministry in New Delhi.
The BRICS nations have also focused on indigenous knowledge and farm practices, which were the backbone of the pre-climate-change era. Agriculture ministers from BRICS countries, who also met in Indore in June 2026 ahead of the Delhi Summit, proposed launching a new forum to address shared challenges and exchange traditional knowledge on seed systems.
A forum will document the knowledge, strengthen community seed banks, and promote farmer-to-farmer exchanges rather than allowing valuable genetic diversity to disappear.
A Global Forum on Farmers’ Rights in Seed Systems has also been tasked with addressing shared challenges and promoting the exchange of traditional agricultural knowledge.
The declaration also highlights the proactive role of BRICS countries in sharing locally adapted farming practices and breeding knowledge, helping farmers diversify their seed base. This cooperation could contribute to conserving crop varieties that are at risk of extinction. BRICS agriculture ministers have also emphasized the importance of preserving crop diversity, agro-biodiversity, and traditional farming practices.
India, for example, has vast traditional knowledge on indigenous seed systems, millets, pulses, rice diversity, natural farming, and smallholder agriculture. Its community-based knowledge can be particularly relevant for climate-resilient and low-input farming.
In the agroecology sector, the approach will be to integrate ecological and social principles for sustainable food systems.
According to India’s agriculture minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, at a time when farmers are in constant struggle with global crises and weather uncertainties, the BRICS declaration has sent a strong message of hope, trust, and collective responsibility to the world.
“For the BRICS countries, agriculture is not merely an economic activity; it is rather closely linked to food security, rural livelihoods, climate resilience, and social stability,” he says.
The Indian government has already decided to create a common knowledge and data ecosystem covering soil health, weather patterns, crop diseases, water availability, seed varieties, and climate risks. Equal importance has also been given to the strengthening of early-warning systems to help farmers with real-time information to respond more effectively to droughts, floods, heatwaves, and emerging pests.
