Zero Budget Natural Farming: Will it help in Doubling Farmers Income?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her maiden Union Budget speech of the 17^th Lok Sabha emphasized on zero budget farming, calling for a “back to the basics” approach. She also said that practising zero budget farming can help in doubling the income of Indian farmers by the year 2022, in the time of our 75^th year of Independence. 

The neo-liberalization of the Indian economy led to a deep agrarian crisis that is making small scale farming an impracticable vocation. Privatized seeds, inputs, and markets are very difficult to get and highly expensive for farmers. High production costs, high interest rates for credit, the volatile market prices of crops, the rising costs of fossil fuel based inputs, and private seeds, is the principal cause of indebtedness of Indian farmers and suicide . As the data given by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), around 70% of agricultural households spend more than they earn and more than half of all farmers are under indebtedness. In States such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, around 90% of household are under the average debt of ₹1 lakh. So as to achieve Central government’s promise to double farmers’ income by 2022, one approach under consideration is natural farming methods such as the Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) which promises to end dependence of farmers on loans to buy agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, breaking the cycle of loan debts.

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a chemical free agriculture originating from conventional Indian farming practices. It was initiated by Maharashtrian agriculturist and Padma Shri recipient Subhash Palekar, who developed it in the mid-1990s as an alternative to the Green Revolution’s methods that are based on chemical fertilizers and pesticides and intensive irrigation. ZBNF relies on the principles of agro-ecology. In April 2018, United Nation Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) also commended all countries to move towards the adoption of agro-ecology to meet the goals of global food security and conservation of environment. ZBNF is also said to be “do nothing farming” because it involves application of nature’s principles in farming with no tilling and no chemical use. It basically uses biological fertilizers such as cow dung, earthworms, urine, plants and human excreta for crop protection instead of chemical based fertilizers. Hence, there is no need to purchase expensive fertilizers and pesticides for healthy growth of crops and as the name suggests it is the method of farming where the cost of growing and harvesting plants is zero.  At the same time, ZBNF method also helps in retaining soil fertility and is climate change resilient. You can also refer to Conventionon Biological Diversity

It has spread to various states of India, especially in southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved. The movement in Karnataka state was born out of collaboration between Mr Subhash Palekar, who put together the ZBNF practices, and the state farmers association Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), a member of La Via Campesina (LVC). In June 2018, Andhra Pradesh government presented an ambitious plan to become India’s first State to follow 100% natural farming by 2024. It commits to eliminate chemical farming over 80 lakh hectares of land, converting the State’s 60 lakh farmers to ZBNF methods. Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Karnataka and Uttarakhand have also showed interest towards ZBNF approach by inviting Mr. Palekar to train their farmers.

The Four Pillars of ZBNF

ZBNF is based on four pillars which are:

Jeevamrutha:  A mixture of fresh cow dung and aged cow urine (both from India's indigenous cow breed), jaggery, pulse flour, water and soil is applied on farmland. This is a fermented microbial culture that adds nutrients to the soil, and acts as a catalytic agent to stimulate the activity of microorganisms and earthworms in the soil.

Bijamrita:  A concoction of neem leaves & pulp, tobacco and green chilies prepared for insect and pest management, which can be used to treat seeds.

Acchadana (Mulching): It protects topsoil during cultivation and does not disturb it by tilling.

Whapasa: It is the form where there are both air molecules and water molecules present in the soil. Thus helping in reducing irrigation requirement.

Difference between ZBNF and Organic farming

Organic farming turns out to be expensive for most small farmers as it involves addition of materials in bulk such as manure, vermicompost and other materials which have to be purchased. According to Mr. Palekar, vermicomposting which is the backbone of typical organic farming uses worms (Eisenia foetida) that absorb toxic metals and contaminate groundwater and soils.

Issues related with the ZBNF

Few studies in Andhra Pradesh reported the sharp decline in input costs and improvement in yields and many farmers reverted to the conventional farming methods after seeing the drop in returns after few years, in turn raising doubts about the method’s efficiency in increasing farmers’ incomes. Sikkim (the first organic state) has been seen decline in yields following conversion to organic farming.

 

 

 

 

 

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