For those who advocate chemical-based farming techniques to ensure higher incomes for farmers, a new study conducted by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) could prove to be a wake-up call.
The study conducted by ICAR’s Hyderabad-based National Academy of Agricultural Research Management [NAARM) found that natural farming may not increase the production for the farmers but it leads to an increase in their incomes.
“Natural Farming may not be yield enhancing but helped in improving farmers’ income by reducing cost of cultivation, and attracting better product price,” the study published in the peer-reviewed Agriculture journal in March, 2023 mentioned.
However, the study report also underlined that when natural farming is supplemented with the use of farm yard manure, even the yield was higher than conventional or chemical farming methods.
“Natural farming practices could not yield as much as conventional farming, however when Natural Farming practices were augmented with even smaller quantities of FYM, it invariably gave better crop yield than those from conventional/ chemical farming,” it stated.
The study reported that in Karnataka, NF [natural farming] with FYM [farm yard manure] has marginally higher yield for banana (8.89 tonnes/hectare), finger millet (38.92 quintals/hectare) and sugarcane (104.55 tonnes/hectare).
In case of paddy, non-NF has a higher yield with 56.08 quintal/hectare. In Maharashtra, turmeric yield under non-NF is higher at 40.03 q/ha than NF. NF with FYM is found to give higher yield in case of soybean (20.6 quintals/hectare), jowar [sorghum] (10.51 q/ha), cotton (14.58 quintals/hectare) and Chickpea (15.63 quintals/hectare).
The study was carried out during February, 2019 to May, 2019 in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The students of Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Agribusiness Management College, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, and Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani were engaged for the data collection in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, respectively.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], the world has to increase food production by 70 per cent so as to cater to the growing global population and constant changes in consumption which is driven by expanding the middle class of our country. Simultaneously, India is expected to be the most populous country by 2030 with 1.51 billion people. The study noted that to ensure food security for the largest populace would be the biggest concern for the country.
“Natural Farming or Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) has become a pivot point of discussion among the agricultural scientists, government, farmers, and several other informal groups engaged in agriculture. This is mainly due to the reason that there are two diametrically opposite schools of thought on this topic co-existing in the country,” the study mentioned in its preface.
“Some scientists straightaway discard the philosophy of Natural Farming. On the other hand, its proponents are claiming the method to be a panacea for all problems causing distress in Indian agriculture, especially for smallholders,” it added.
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It mentioned that the ICAR was tasked by the National Institution for Transforming India [NITI] Aayog to conduct the study to get the answer to these ‘several critical questions’ on natural farming.
The study concluded that natural farming is found to be widespread in Andhra Pradesh with majority joining the bandwagon during the last 5 years, whereas in Karnataka and Maharashtra, adoption of natural farming though started more than 15 years back, is very much sporadic.
Major benefits of natural farming:
- From the field survey and available literature, it appears that ZBNF/NF [Zero Budget Natural Farming/Natural Farming] helps in increasing farm income, even when crop yield doesn’t increase. Moreover, in the long run, if the theory of change proves to be true, it would help in a big way in regenerative agriculture.
- High level of microbial activity and improved Soil Organic Carbon, soil health would improve significantly. Apart from this, it might have several indirect benefits, such as non-application of chemical fertilisers would reduce the burden of fertiliser subsidy and stop nitrate leaching into the groundwater.
- Non-application of chemical pesticides helps farmers directly due to its non-exposure. On the other hand, crop diversity in the ZBNF field would also lead to better food diversity in the farmers’ household, thus improving the nutritional status of the small holder farmers.