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