“Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) - Implications for Sustainability, Profitability, and Food Security”, a study by NABARD | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
    • VisionIAS Logo
    Share
    DCAP-mobile
    News Today Logo
    SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
    1 2 3 No article 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 No article 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 No article 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 No article 25 No article 26 No article 27 28 29 30 31 No article

    Table of Content

    “Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) - Implications for Sustainability, Profitability, and Food Security”, a study by NABARD

    Posted 08 Mar 2024

    Updated 25 Mar 2024

    2 min read

     

    • Study assesses the ZBNF on four crucial parameters:
      • Sustainable agriculture: Naturally obtained inputs like cow dung, cow urine, leaves, etc. are sustainable alternatives to the chemical inputs.
      • Impact on farmers’ net incomes: A study showed that net income of ZBNF farmers exceeded that of the non-ZBNF practitioners in most crops.
      • Influence on crop productivity: Although there have been instances of increased yield in some crops under ZBNF, traditional varieties under ZBNF can result in decline in per unit area productivity.
      • Potential implications on national food security if scaled up: There would be significant food shortages impacting India’s self-sufficiency in foodgrains. 

     

    • ZBNF is farming with nature without use of modern tools and technology (like machinery, genetically modified seeds, soil testing). 
      • According to it, plants obtain 98-98.5% of nutrition from air, water, and sun, and remaining 1.5% from the soil. 
      • System, therefore, can sustain and flourish even without nutrient supplementation.

     

    • Four wheels of ZBNF (Pioneered by Subhash Palekar) include: 
      • Beejamrit - Microbial coating of seeds
      • Jeevamrit - Microbial coating of soil 
      • Waaphasa - Soil aeration 
      • Acchadana - Mulching - applying layer of organic material to soil surface

     

    • Union Government implements ZBNF as Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP), a sub-scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).

     

    Recommendations:

    • Need for a long-term experimentation before suggesting ZBNF as a national level agriculture practice.
    • Farming practice neutrality: By providing direct benefit transfers (DBT), the subsidy becomes neutral towards specific farming practices.
    • Resilient supply chain networks for farm inputs are a prerequisite to transitioning towards natural farming
    • Tags :
    • ZBNF
    • ZERO BUDGET FARMING
    • SUBHASH PALEKAR
    Next Article
    Strategy Paper on Coal Import Substitution
    Watch News Today
    Download News Today
    RELATED ARTICLES
    Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal husbandry and Food processing presented 'Promotion of Climate Resilient Farming’ Report

    Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal husbandry and Food processing presented 'Promotion of Climate Resilient Farming’ Report