Should India focus on natural farming?

  • July 28, 2024
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Should India focus on natural farming?

Sub: Env

Sec: Agri

Context:

  • Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to involve one crore farmers in natural farming over the next two years, supported by certification and branding.
  • Implementation will involve scientific institutions and gram panchayats, with 10,000 bio-input resource centres to be established.

National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF):

  • NMNF aims to encourage farmers to adopt chemical-free farming using locally-produced, cow-based inputs.
  • The natural farming scheme, under the ‘Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati,’ has a budget of ₹4,645.69 crore for six years (2019-20 to 2024-25).

What is Natural Farming?

  • Natural farming avoids chemical fertilizers and pesticides, using traditional practices like biomass recycling, cow dung-urine formulations, and on-farm botanical concoctions.
  • It focuses on natural nutrient cycling and increasing soil organic matter, integrating crops, trees, and livestock.

Natural farming practice:

  • Natural farming is an ecological farming approach where farming system works with the natural biodiversity, encouraging the soil’s biological activity and managing the complexity of living organisms both plant and animal to thrive along with food production system. Important practices, essential for adoption of natural farming includes:
    • No external inputs,
    •  Local seeds (use of local varieties), .
    • On-farm produced microbial formulation for seed treatment (such as bijamrita),
    • On-farm made microbial inoculants (Jivamrita) for soil enrichment,
    • Cover crops and mulching with green and dry organic matter for nutrient recycling and for creating a suitable micro-climate for maximum beneficial microbial activity in soil.
    • Mixed cropping,
    • Managing diversity on farm through integration of trees
    • Management of pests through diversity and local on-farm made botanical concoctions (such as neemastra, agniastra, neem ark, dashparni ark etc);
    • Integration of livestock, especially of native breed for cow dung and cow urine as essential inputs for several practices and
    • Water and moisture conservation.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES FOR NATURAL FARMING PROMOTION:

  • Preserve natural flora and fauna
  • Restore soil health and fertility and soil’s biological life
  • Maintain diversity in crop production
  • Efficient utilization of land and natural resources (light, air, water)
  • Promote natural beneficial insects, animals and microbes in soil for nutrient recycling and biological control of pests and diseases
  • Promotion of local breeds forlivestock integration
  • Use of natural / local resource-based inputs
  • Reduce input cost of agricultural production
  • Improve economics of farmers

Challenges and Concerns:

  • Experts express concerns about transitioning from chemical to natural farming on a large scale in India, given the country’s food security needs.
  • An academic paper highlights mixed outcomes from different studies on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), with Andhra Pradesh showing positive results, while another study notes significant yield declines in key crops like wheat and basmati rice.
  • Sri Lanka’s complete shift to organic farming led to economic and political turmoil, highlighting the risks of a sudden transition without adequate preparation and study.

Source: TH

Environment Should India focus on natural farming?