IKEA, the home furnishing retailer, has joined the Regenerative Cotton Accelerator Programme (RCAP) as a strategic partner. The company will join RCAP’s Steering Group and contribute cotton sourcing and supply chain expertise to efforts supporting regenerative cotton production in India.
Launched in February 2026, RCAP aims to accelerate the adoption of regenerative cotton in India by reducing transition risks for farmers, strengthening technical and assurance systems, generating verifiable environmental evidence and building sustained demand for credibly verified regenerative cotton.
The Steering Group serves as RCAP’s apex governance body, providing strategic guidance on sector transformation, market alignment, investment priorities and systems strengthening.
“For a sourcing company, the credibility of regenerative cotton begins long before the fibre reaches a mill or a store,” says K. Srinivasan, IKEA’s representative in the RCAP Steering Group. “It begins with the farmer, the condition of the soil and the reliability of the evidence behind each claim. Through RCAP, we hope to contribute our sourcing and supply chain experience to a practical model that can work for farmers, businesses and the environment.”
Need for Regenerative Certified Cotton Supply Chains
India is the second-largest producer of cotton globally. Soil degradation, declining productivity, rising input costs, biodiversity loss and increasing climate vulnerabilities are eroding farmer resilience and threatening long-term sustainability of the cotton sector.
Regenerative agriculture is emerging as a critical pathway to address these challenges. However, the current regenerative cotton ecosystem in India often faces significant operational and market bottlenecks, with weak traceability, delayed audits, inconsistent data systems and limited market assurance for farmers. This adds strain on top of the already increasing pressure that global brands face to demonstrate credible progress on climate action, biodiversity conservation and responsible sourcing commitments.
In this context, RCAP provides a strategic platform for businesses to access verified regenerative cotton supply, strengthen Scope 3 emission-reduction strategies through carbon insetting, improve supply chain traceability and due diligence compliance, and support farmer resilience alongside biodiversity outcomes.
RCAP uses the Regenagri® framework to establish a more consistent and outcome-focused approach. Its work includes farm and farmer mapping, unique producer identification, stronger internal control systems, certification preparation, chain-of-custody documentation and reconciliation between cotton produced, procured and sold under regenerative claims.
IKEA’s Role in the Steering Group
As the programme evolves, it is now being overseen by a Steering Group representing the founding organisations, strategic members and contributing partners.
IKEA’s leadership in sustainable sourcing and long-term commitment to responsible cotton procurement will provide valuable strategic direction to RCAP. It will strengthen the programme by:
- Bringing a strong buyer perspective to shape market-linked Regenagri cotton pathways;
- Supporting alignment between field-level realities and brand sustainability ambitions;
- Contributing to designing fair and predictable sourcing mechanisms for smallholder farmers;
- Guiding the development of credible impact systems aligned with global due diligence and sustainable commitments.
“The next chapter of regenerative cotton will not be written by adding one more isolated project,” says Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Managing Director, Solidaridad Asia. “It will be written by connecting changes on the farm with credible evidence, assured supply chains and purchasing decisions. IKEA’s participation brings market and supply chain knowledge into a programme that also includes farmers, conservation specialists, standards organisations and implementation partners.”
RCAP’s long-term vision is to establish India as a globally significant source of credible regenerative cotton.
“Regenerative agriculture must strengthen farming communities while restoring the natural systems on which agriculture depends,” says Murli Dhar, Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Programme at WWF-India. “In cotton-growing regions, healthier soils, better water retention and biodiversity protection are closely connected to the future of farmer livelihoods. IKEA brings a buyer and supply chain perspective that can help ensure verified environmental progress is recognised by the market.”