Natural Farming : A Noble Solution for 'Agriculture Sustainability' and 'Rural Income Stability' : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-3: Agricultural produce and issues and related constraints

Key Phrases: Natural Farming, Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), B-C-S-M formula-' Branding, Certification, Standardisation and Marketing', Tracenet Certification Software(APEDA).

Why in News?

Recently, it was in the News that the government is planning to enhance the subsidy on “natural farming” by 50 per cent by re-launching the scheme on a mission mode in select blocks without hampering the food security, a concern many experts have expressed amid its failure in Sri Lanka.
Under the plan, now under consideration, one cluster (of 500 hectares), each in 1-2 blocks will be taken up to motivate farmers.
Till now, government-assisted natural farming area has reached 4.09 lakh hectares for which ₹49.81 crore has been disbursed in eight States including Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Kerala.

What is Natural Farming?

Natural farming is a method of chemical-free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practices.
It is a unique model that relies on Agro-ecology. It aims to bring down the cost of production and boost the return to a sustainable level.
It asserts that there is no need for expensive inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and intensive irrigation.
Natural farming encourages the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms and earthworms right on the soil surface, gradually adding nutrients to the soil over time

In organic farming ,however , organic fertilizers and manures, such as compost, vermi-compost, and cow dung manure, are utilized and applied to farming land.

Do you know about Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)?

ZBNF is a set of natural farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.
Subhash Palekar perfected it during the 1990s at his farm in Amravati district in Maharashtra’s drought-prone Vidarbha region.
According to the “zero budget” concept, farmers won’t have to spend any money on fertilisers and other agricultural inputs.
Over 98% of the nutrients that crops require — carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water, solar energy — are already present in nature.
The remaining 1.5-2% are taken from the soil, after microorganisms convert them from soil organic residues.

Do you know the “four pillars” of ZBNF?

Jiwamrita is a fermented mixture of cow dung and urine (of desi breeds), jaggery, pulses flour, water and soil from the farm bund.This isn’t a fertilizer, but just a source of some 500 crore micro-organisms that can convert all the necessary “non-available” nutrients into “available” form.
Bijamrita is a mix of desi cow dung and urine, water, bund soil and lime that is used as a seed treatment solution prior to sowing.Mulching, or covering the plants with a layer of dried straw or fallen leaves, is meant to conserve soil moisture and keep the temperature around the roots at 25-32 degrees Celsius, which allows the microorganisms to do their job.
Waaphasa, or providing water to maintain the required moisture-air balance, also achieves the same objective.

What are the key observations of the Editorial?

Ongoing schemes:
1. Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) was introduced as a sub-scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) in 2020-21 under which the Centre releases about ₹12,200/hectare for a period of three years for cluster formation, capacity building and continuous hand holding.
2. In the 2022-23 Budget both the BPKP and PKVY have been subsumed under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).
Agriculture Ministry findings: Currently 'Less Incentives to go Natural':
1. The current assistance is too low to motivate farmers and the Union Govt has agreed to enhance it.
2. Incentives could be around ₹18,000 per hectare under the revamped plan depending on the scale of the roll-out,” a source said.
Gradualistic Approach: Though the plan is to cover 6,672 blocks in the country in phases over a period of time with at least one cluster each, initially the focus will be on those areas which have been practising natural farming and there is potential to achieve the target at the earliest.

What are the various suggestions given by Editorial?

Resolve 'Natural vs organic' dilemma :
- Experts have said that the assistance under natural farming should be at par with organic farming where farmers currently receive ₹31,000-32,500 per hectare for three years.
- India has the first mover advantage in the label of ‘Natural’ in the global agricultural export market because of diversity and different types of Natural farming practices found across the nation. This creates huge opportunities for exports.
- The label of Natural in agriculture is wider and deeper than ‘Organic’ in view of social and economic benefits. The label of organic is well matured vis-a-vis natural farming and therefore, the financial assistance on natural farming should be equivalent to organic agriculture.
Proper implementation of B-C-S-M formula-' Branding, Certification, Standardisation and Marketing' :
- The financial assistance scheme of organic agriculture could be linked with Tracenet Certification Software of APEDA, as it contains comprehensive and practising farmers, in order to create efficient utilisation.
- Simultaneously, standards will be developed for crops produced through natural farming and promotion will be initiated with separate export-oriented branding different from organic products.
- Marketing is very important to get premium for produce of natural farming that will be one of the key motivators for the farmers.
For Atmanirbhar Bharat: Food security will not be compromised under any scenario:
- On food security issues, the government said that there is no such threat as production will not drop in natural farming and the selection of crops like oilseeds and pulses will be rather beneficial for the country.
- The current BPKP scheme emphasises on exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs and promotes on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching, use of cow dung-urine formulations and plant based preparations,which enhances the agricultural productivity and income stability to farmers.
Increasing government allocation and promoting cooperative federalism in policy implementation:
- Allocation under RKVY has been increased nearly three-fold to ₹10,433 crore for 2022-23 from ₹3,712.44 crore (BE) in the current fiscal and the hike is over five-times from the revised estimate.
- The scheme allows flexibility to States to develop and implement their own plans and draw the Central funds.
- The revamped plan on natural farming may also allow States to disburse additional funds above the Central assistance from the RKVY budget.

Conclusion:

The agriculture ministry plans to offer cash incentives to farmers who take up ‘yogik’ farming, ‘gou mata kheti’ and ‘rishi krishi’ which is the right step in promoting natural farming in India.
The need is to develop proper institutional mechanisms and agriculture extensions facilities like branding, certification and marketing so that income stability and food security both can be ensured.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. What are the problems and prospects of ‘Natural Farming’? Are government policies to promote natural farming impressive enough to motivate farmers to go for natural ? Examine. (10 marks).