Dr Parshant Bakshi, Ashima Choudhary
The final principle of natural farming is NO PESTICIDES. Nature is in perfect balance when left alone. Natural farming uses only locally accessible resources and is devoid of chemicals. It was introduced by a Japanese farmer and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka in his book The One-Straw Revolution in the year 1975.It supports customary indigenous methods that free farmers from having to buy inputs from outside sources. It is a varied farming system that integrates crops, trees, and livestock and is firmly based in agro-ecology. This allows for the best possible utilization of functional biodiversity. It relies heavily on recycling biomass on the farm and mulching it. It also uses a desi cow dung-urine formulation, manages pests with diversity, makes use of on-farm botanical concoctions, and excludes all synthetic chemical inputs, either directly or indirectly. In addition to providing numerous other advantages like improving soil fertility and environmental health and lowering or mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, it has the potential to increase farmers’ income. Globally, natural farming is regarded as a type of regenerative agriculture, which is a well-known approach for preserving the environment.
Natural farming is gaining popularity in India, with several states promoting it through various schemes. As of 2023, it is estimated that about 6.5 lakh hectares (16.1 million acres) of land in India are under natural farming. The National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF), an autonomous programme by the Indian Government, aims to advance chemical-free and climate-smart agriculture. This mission has been developed by expanding the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP) with the goal of encouraging natural farming throughout the nation. Under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), natural farming is promoted in India through the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP). The goal of this programme is to support native customs that minimise the need for outside purchases of inputs. SNMNF plans to create 15,000 clusters over a 7.5 lakh hectare area. Farmers who agree to apply natural farming practices on their land will be registered as members of a cluster; each cluster must consist of at least 50 farmers with 50 hectares of land. Each cluster may also belong to a single village or disperse among two to three neighboring villages that are all under the same gram panchayat. For three years, under the NMNF, farmers will get financial support of ?15,000 per hectare annually to build infrastructure for producing inputs on their farms. However, farmers would only receive the incentives if they genuinely adopted natural farming and remain committed to it. Subsequent payments will not be made to a farmer who defaults or stops farming naturally. In addition, a website featuring details on the resources, implementation framework, farmer registration, implementation progress, blog and other topics has been launched to promote natural farming in India.
Through the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) and National Centre of Organic and Natural Farming (NCONF), the agriculture ministry is conducting extensive training in natural farming techniques for master trainers, “champion” farmers, and practicing farmers. The Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-inputs Resources Centres (BRCs) are intended to be established by the Centre to facilitate the easy access to bio-resources, which include cow dung and urine, neem, and bio-culture. Together side, the 15,000 model clusters of natural farming that are being proposed, these bio-input resource centres would be established.
Significance of natural farming
It ensures better health as the food grow in this farming is free from any synthetic chemicals and have high nutritional capacity thus eliminating the health risks and offer better health benefits. Natural farming seeks to raise farmers’ net incomes through lower costs, fewer risks, comparable yields and income from intercropping in order to make farming sustainable and aspirational. Natural farming has the greatest direct effect on soil biology, specifically on microbes and other living things like earthworms. It increases the productivity by improving the soil health.
Components of natural farming
Beejamrit: It is liquid manure that is used for seed treatment and root dip. Seed treatment is essential as during germination many diseases make up their footprints. It can protect young roots from fungal diseases. It has a lot of plant beneficial microbes and is a fermented microbial solution.
Jivamrit: It is prepared by using cow urine, dung, pulse flour and jaggery concoction which enhances the soil fertility.
Whapasa: This process involves activating earthworms in the soil in order to create vapour condensation.
Mulching: It is used for conserving soil moisture by creating micro climate using different mulches with trees and crop biomass.
Plant protection: The process involves praying of biological concoctions which prevents pest, disease and weed problems and protects the plant and improves oil fertility.
Various issues related to natural farming are as Sikkim being the first organic state have observed the decline in yield on conversion into organic. After observing a decline in their ZBNF (Zero-Budget Natural Farming) returns after a few years, many farmers have switched back to conventional farming. Farmers are more concerned about the economic returns than other benefits while, ZBNF has definitely helped preserve soil fertility, its role in boosting productivity and farmers income isn’t conclusive yet. On the other hand, lack of availability of natural inputs is often-cited barrier by farmers in transitioning to chemical-free farming is the lack of readily available natural inputs. Not every farmer has time, patience and labour to develop their own inputs. Hence, these issues should be addressed and they need to be fixed.
There is a need to focus on promoting natural farming in rainfed areas beyond Gangetic basin. In comparison to the areas where irrigation is prevalent rainfed regions use only a third of fertilizers per hectare. Microenterprises that produce inputs for chemical-free agriculture shall be provided support from the government to address the challenge of unavailability of readily available natural inputs, the promotion of natural farming needs to be combined with the setting up of village-level input preparation and sales shops. An ecosystem shall be facilitated by the government in which farmers learn from and support each other while making the transition. It is necessary to upskill agriculture extension workers on sustainable agriculture practices in addition to changing the curricula in agricultural universities.
(The authors are head, division of fruit science and PhD Scholar SKUAST-J.)
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