An increasingly popular solution is to work with companies from across a range of sectors including insurers and banks, which have an interest in protecting themselves from the consequences of extreme weather, and as evidence mounts that it is worth investing in different farming methods.
"Farms adopting ... regenerative practices are consistently outperforming more conventional holdings during drought stress in terms of both yield and profitability," Andrew Voysey, Chief Impact Officer at agriculture consultancy Soil Capital, said.
He cited a study for the organisation that found farms that adopted regenerative practices reduced drought-related yield losses by at least 10% in around 85% of cases.
In Britain, Lloyds Bank LLOY.L has joined forces with regenerative food business Wildfarmed to create the Food & Nature Resilience Fund, alongside water companies Severn Trent SVT.L and Affinity Water and insurance group AXA XL AXAF.PA. Pooled funds go to farmers to improve soil health.
Ben Makowiecki, Lloyds' Agriculture Sustainability Director, said water companies could reduce the amount of money spent on removing farm chemicals from river systems, saving £4 ($5) to £6 of upstream costs for every pound they invest in farms, while insurers can access data to better understand how regenerative agriculture can mitigate flood risk.
"We can't do this on an individual farm-by-farm basis," he said, adding collaboration was needed to get "systemic industry change".
Another scheme is the Routes to Regen initiative, involving companies including McCain and McDonald's, UK supermarket Waitrose, banks such as Lloyds, Barclays BARC.L and NatWest NWG.L and insurers including Aon AON.N and Tokio Marine Kiln 8766.T.
Rather than creating a pooled fund, it aims to give farmers a choice of support. The options include preferential lending terms, technical advice, food-company incentives, peer learning and insurance products.
After launching last year with 100 farmers the initiative aims to grow to at least 200 farmers this year, and expand from the original six counties to six more, a spokesperson said.
"Building a more resilient food system is bigger than any one company," said Jon Banner, global chief impact officer at McDonald's, which aims to spend at least $1 billion over the next decade in supply-chain resilience.
For McCain Foods, the Canadian frozen potato company, more than 50% of its farmer base is eligible for some form of transition-support programme, including financing, guarantees, incentives and longer-term contracts.
Vice President Global External Affairs and Sustainability Charlie Angelakos said supply concerns drove its decision to target regenerative farming, adding: "This isn't just a climate change play for us. We really look at this as an assured supply initiative."
For some, the support of the insurance industry has been the catalyst for change.
At Nestle NESN.S, the world's largest food and beverages company by market capitalisation, the work to bolster supply chains has been aided by insurers offering lower fees for insurance against yield decline or natural disasters when applied to regenerative agriculture practices.
"That's quite a tool, that's new," Antonia Wanner, Nestle's chief sustainability officer, told Reuters.
Insurer Generali Italia GASI.MI also this year launched a pilot involving 500 farms that links sustainable farming practices to higher indemnity limits for climate-related events, with future phases potentially including lower premiums.
In Britain farming officials said they could not specify how many farms use regenerative techniques as it can mean different things to different people.
Andy Gray, however, is another English farmer who has made the switch.
On one of the hottest days of the year he pointed a temperature gun at two patches of ground on his farm.
Beneath a cover crop of clover, the soil registered 32 degrees Celsius (89.6 degrees Fahrenheit). On a nearby bare patch, it reached 51 C (123.8 F), a temperature that kills much of the soil biology crops need, he said.
"If I can maintain soil moisture for a fortnight going into the drought, then that gives me an extra fortnight's growing compared to everybody else," said Gray, who farms 150 acres of maize in the southwestern county of Devon.
"If it's green for longer, it's producing for longer."
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