ZERO BUDGET NATURAL FARMING

BY MUBARAK ALI August 20, 2023

ZERO BUDGET NATURAL FARMING

What is Zero Budget Natural Farming(ZBNF)?

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a method of chemical-free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practices.

It was firstly started by a Marathi agriculturist SubhashPalekar, in the mid of 1990s. He practised it without using any chemical fertilizers and pesticides to cultivate. It is unique model as it relies on Agro-ecology. It aims to bring down the cost of production to nearly Zero and return to pre-green revolution model of farming.

Its focus is not to use the expensive inputs like, fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides and intensive irrigation.

Some Unique Qualities of ZBNF

v In the Zero Budget Natural Farming, nothing has to be purchased form the outside. All the things required for the growth of the plant are available around the root ground of the plant.

v More than 98% of nutrients are taken from air, water and solar energy.

v Remaining 2% of nutrients taken from soil are also available free of cost as it is taken from the prosperous soil which enriched with these nutrients.

v It uses biological pesticides instead of chemical-based fertilizers.

v Farmers use earthworms, cow dung, urine, plants, human excreta and such biological fertilizers for crop grow.

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Four Farming pillars of ZBNF

Zero Budget Natural Farming is based on total four pillars. There is a complete set of farming methods under this model. These four pillars are: -

Image courtesy:- thehindubusinessline.com

1. Soil Treatment or Jeevamrutha:- It is a fermented microbial culture in which a mixture of India’s indigenous cow dung, urine, jaggery, pulse, flour, water and soil are applied on farm land which promotes the activities of microorganism in soil.

2. Seed Treatment or Beejamrita: It is a treatment used for seeds, seedling or any planting material. It is a concoction of neem leaves & pulp, tobacco & green chillies, prepared for insects and pest management.

3. Herbicide Treatment or Acchadana(Mulching):- It protects topsoil during cultivation and does not destroy it by tilling. According to Subhash Palekar, there are three types of mulching. a) Soil mulch; b) Straw mulch & c) Live mulch.

4. Air infusion in Soil or Whapasa:- It is the condition where air molecules and water molecules(moisture), both are present in the soil. It helps in reducing irrigation requirements.

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Advantages of ZBNF

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v In ZBNF, the cost of production could be reduced and farming made into a “Zero Budget” exercise.

v In this age of environmental degradation which is causing due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and intensive irrigation, ZBNF could be one of the good initiatives of environment friendly farming method.

v With the rising cost of fertilizers and pesticides, which is the leading cause of farmer’s suicide, ZBNF would break the debt cycle of many small farmers.

v It suits all types of crops in all kind of agro-climatic zone.

v ZBNF method discourages deep ploughing and intensive irrigation, which is helpful to stop land degradation and it encourages inter-cropping, soil aeration, minimal watering.

v As this method is much beneficial, hence, the governments of many states have aimed to start organic farming. In June, 2018, Andhra Pradesh rolled out its ambitious project to become India’s first state to practise 100% natural farming by 2024.

NEED OF ZERO BUDGET NATURAL FARMING(ZBNF)

India was struggling to gain self-dependency in every field after its independence. In order to feed it’s more than 340 million population and to fulfil their basic requirements, it was strongly felt that self-dependency should be achieved first. Indian economy was largely depending on Agriculture sector and its contribution in GDP was more than 54%. Hence, to reduce that thrust, agricultural development was kept as the main aim in First Five Yearplan in 1951. In year 1968, Green Revolution was commenced in India in the leadership and guidance of agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan and India adopted modern methods of farming and technology, such as use of HYV seeds, tractors, irrigation facilities, pesticides and fertilizers.

Although, the Green Revolution yielded great prosperity during its early years by increasing agricultural productivity in India and it achieved it’s goal of self-dependency in food grains. However, it created regional disparity as only of few states of India like Punjab, Haryana, Western U.P and M.P could adopt this new revolution in agriculture as these were irrigated and high potential rainfed areas. Rest of the states of India were unable to connect themselves with this new change.

The use of costly HYV seeds, with their associated demands of increased irrigation system and pesticides, use of chemicals or synthetic fertilizers, advanced machines, pushed the farmers into a cycle of debt which was commonly borrowed at very high interest rates from the local money lenders and banks. It became painful trap, especially if they have a bad harvest. This phenomenon started a new chapter of catastrophe as farmers started committing suicides. The reason was very obvious, their incapability of repaying debts mostly taken from private land lords and banks. As per the reports of National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) of India, a total of 2,96,438 Indian farmers had committed suicide since 1995.

Hence, to stop this catastrophe of India and to save the farmers of committing suicide due to inability of repayment of loans, a low budget or Zero Budget farming was required where, an alternative of Green Revolution methods should be presented and poison/chemical free food grains could be grown.

States Implementing ZBNF

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) started as grassroot peasant movement. It has spread to various states in India. It has attended wide success in southern India, especially the southern state of Karnataka where it first evolved. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana replicated this model. It was a result of a collaboration between, agriculturist Subhash Palekar and state farmers association.