PrakritikKhetiKhushhalYojana (PK3Y)

Subject – Agriculture

Context – Himachal’s women farmers expand their horizons, without hurting nature

Concept –

PrakritikKhetiKhushhalYojana (PK3Y) is promoting the climate resilient Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF), also called ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming.
The scheme intends to provide subsidy with the financial assistance of Rs. 50,000 to encourage farmers for natural farming.
The scheme will cover the activities being implemented by the department for the promotion of organic farming, Rashtriya KrishiVikasYojana (PKVY), PramparagatKrishiVikasYojana (PKVY) or any other scheme were related to natural farming are being implemented.
The Department of Agriculture would act the nodal agency for implementing PrakritikKhetiKhushhalKissan Yojana under zero budget natural farming system.
The State Level Committee under the Directorate of Agriculture is responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring of the zero budget natural farming.

Zero Budget Natural Farming

Zero budget natural farming is a method of chemical-free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practices.
It was originally promoted by agriculturist Subhash Palekar, who developed it in the mid-1990s as an alternative to the Green Revolution’s methods that are driven by chemical fertilizers and pesticides and intensive irrigation.
It is a unique model that relies on Agro-ecology.
It aims to bring down the cost of production to nearly zero and return to a pre-green revolution style of farming.
It claims that there is no need for expensive inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and intensive irrigation.
ZBNF is based on 4 pillars:
- Jeevamrutha: It is a mixture of fresh cow dung and aged cow urine (both from India’s indigenous cow breed), jaggery, pulse flour, water and soil; to be applied on farmland.
- Bijamrita: It is a concoction of neem leaves & pulp, tobacco and green chilies prepared for insect and pest management, that can be used to treat seeds.
- Acchadana (Mulching): It protects topsoil during cultivation and does not destroy it by tilling.
- Whapasa: It is the condition where there are both air molecules and water molecules present in the soil. Thereby helping in reducing irrigation requirement.
It has been pioneered by Shri. Subhash Palekar.
The ZBNF farm model is based on polycropping.
The expenditure on the main crop is recovered from the income from the short duration inter crops, hence the net expenditure on the main crop is ‘zero’.