The Future Is Regenerating: Young Farmers Are Rising

They say young people don’t want to farm. That agriculture is dying, and that the young generation is leaving their villages to chase a better future far from their roots.

But in the quiet fields of East Java, we saw something different.

A group of young farmers gathered beneath the trees. Most had never been called leaders before. Some came quietly, unsure if they belonged. Others brought curiosity and a quiet fire.

They came to learn how to bring life back to their soil as part of our MAMA TANAH Program. But they left with something more: A reason to stay.

"I thought I had to leave my village to find a future. Now I farm to protect it."

That’s what Andris, one of our young farmers told us at the end of our latest Biodiversity Training.

Like so many his age, he had been preparing to leave home. He had watched his soil grow tired, his parents struggling with failing harvests. He believed what the world kept telling him: that farming had no future.

But then he learned what regeneration meant.

That farming, done differently, could become a force of protection rather than extraction.

In learning to care for the land, he found something deeper: pride. Purpose. A path forward that doesn’t require leaving anything behind.

Not Your Average Farming

The youth we work with in East Java are not stepping into traditional agriculture. They’re stepping into something far more radical: the work of repair.

Through our Biodiversity Training, they learn to:

• Restore soil health using indigenous composting methods

• Reintroduce native plants and protect local biodiversity

• Replace chemical pesticides with natural pest ecosystems

• Prevent air pollution from burning through Biochar

• Understand how their choices shape the future of food, climate, and community

They arrive unsure if they belong on the land, and they leave as soil stewards.

A Quiet Revolution Rooted in the Soil

At Rumah SukkhaCitta Foundation, we believe the climate crisis isn’t just about carbon.
It’s about who gets left behind.

Rural women and youth are often seen as victims. Passive recipients of aid, or statistics in reports. But what we see every day tells a different story. When equipped with tools, knowledge, and support, they become powerful changemakers.

We work where the crisis is already unfolding: at the intersection of disappearing biodiversity, depleting soil, and disappearing livelihoods. And we begin where regeneration truly starts: with people.

For young people, and especially women.

When we invest in them, we don’t just restore our Planet. We restore dignity while sustaining indigenous culture.

Help Us Build the Next Chapter: A Regenerative Research & Learning Center

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the climate crisis, this is your reminder: solutions exist. They are local, living, and already growing — in the hands of young farmers in East Java, and in the seeds we protect together.

This moment in East Java is just the beginning.

To expand the impact of these trainings, we are building Indonesia’s first Regenerative Research & Learning Center — a living campus where young farmers, women leaders, and indigenous communities can learn to protect biodiversity, restore soil, and adapt to climate change through local wisdom.

This center will allow us to:

• Train thousands more farmers across the archipelago

• Protect native seed varieties and traditional ecological knowledge

• Research regenerative techniques suited to tropical, smallholder farming

• Cultivate a new generation of soil stewards who lead from the roots

But we can’t do it alone. We are currently raising funds to bring this vision to life. And we need your help to make it real.

Regeneration is not just a theory. It’s a seed. And it’s already being planted.

Help us train more farmers. Restore more land. Protect more futures.

Because when women thrive, the Earth heals.
And when young people rise, the future regenerates.