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 SAG and INDAP, which serves small-scale family farmers.

Farmers submit management plans through regional competitive 'concursos' 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, and erosion-control works.

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 across eight localities.

As a nationwide, statutory programme running continuously since 2010, SIRSD-S represents one of Latin America's longer-running agri-environmental payment schemes for smallholder soil restoration. Its evidence base is mainly administrative rather than independently measured soil-quality or yield outcomes; no peer-reviewed impact evaluation of its effect on erosion rates, water infiltration or long-term productivity was identified.