SIRSD-S — Chile's Agro-Environmental Soil Sustainability Incentive System

Chile's Sistema de Incentivos para la Sustentabilidad Agroambiental de los Suelos Agropecuarios (SIRSD-S) was established by Law 20.412 in 2010, consolidating an earlier soil-recovery incentive scheme. The programme is coordinated by the Undersecretariat of Agriculture and jointly implemented by the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) and the National Institute for Agricultural Development (INDAP), which serves small-scale family farmers. Farmers submit management plans through regional competitive 'concursos' (calls) and, if approved, receive incentive payments - INDAP finances up to 90% of eligible costs for its clients - covering practices such as re-establishing vegetation cover on bare or degraded soils, correcting soil acidity or salinity with lime or amendments, applying phosphorus fertilisers to restore natural fertility, and erosion-control works.

The programme's scale is demonstrated through its regional results: in the Biobío region alone, two concurso rounds reported in 2025 approved a combined 561 management plans, treating just over 1,000 hectares of degraded agricultural land, for a combined incentive investment of approximately 676 million pesos (roughly US$700,000), administered through INDAP area offices in Concepción, Cañete, Tirúa, Los Ángeles, Santa Bárbara, Yumbel, Arauco and Alto Biobío.

As a nationwide, statutory programme running continuously since 2010 (building on an even older SIRSD predecessor), SIRSD-S represents one of Latin America's longer-running government agri-environmental payment schemes targeted specifically at smallholder soil restoration, financed and audited through the national budget rather than carbon or biodiversity markets.

Its evidence base is mainly administrative (contracts signed, hectares and incentives paid per regional round) rather than independently measured soil-quality or yield outcomes; no peer-reviewed impact evaluation of SIRSD-S's effect on erosion rates, water infiltration or long-term productivity was identified, which limits confidence in the programme's realised ecological impact relative to its administrative scale.

Read the full analysis: http://www.indap.gob.cl/noticias/indap-invertira-334-millones-de-pesos-en-la-recuperacion-de-suelos-degradados-en-la-region