Zero Budget Natural Farming - ZBNF

Zero Budget Natural Farming – A move from green revolution to evergreen revolution 

What is ZBNF  - “Zero Budget Natural Farming” 

• The word ‘budget’ refers to credit and expenses, thus the phrase 'Zero Budget' means without using any credit, and without spending any money on purchased inputs. 'Natural farming' means farming with Nature and without chemicals.
• This means farmers need not purchase fertilisers and pesticides in order to ensure healthy growth of crops. The inputs used for seed treatment and other inoculations are locally available in form of cow dung and cow urine. This lowers the cost of inputs for farmers. Besides, it also protects soil from degradation, helps in retaining soil fertility and is climate change resilient.

Why we Need It -: 

1. Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.

2. It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved.  

3. The neo-liberalization of the Indian economy led to a deep agrarian crisis that is making small scale farming an unviable vocation.

4. Privatized seeds, inputs, and markets are inaccessible and expensive for peasants. 

5. Indian farmers increasingly find themselves in a vicious cycle of debt, because of the high production costs, high interest rates for credit, the volatile market prices of crops, the rising costs of fossil fuel based inputs, and private seeds. 

6. Debt is a problem for farmers of all sizes in India. Under such conditions, ‘zero budget’ farming promises to end a reliance on loans and drastically cut production costs, ending the debt cycle for desperate farmers.

What are Government of India Initiative to Support ZBNF ??

1. Paramparagat Krishi Yojana – 

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana” is an elaborated component of Soil Health Management (SHM) of major project National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA). Under PKVY Organic farming is promoted through adoption of organic village by cluster approach and PGS certification

2. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana –

• Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) is a continuing scheme under implementation from XI Five Year Plan. 

• The scheme provides considerable flexibility and autonomy to states in planning and executing programmes for incentivizing investment in agriculture and allied sectors. 

• States initiate the process of decentralized planning for agriculture and allied sectors through preparation of District Agriculture Plans (DAPs) and State Agriculture Plan (SAP) based on agro-climatic conditions, availability of appropriate technology and natural resources to ensure accommodation of local needs, cropping pattern, priorities etc. 

• RKVY has also enabled adoption of national priorities without affecting the autonomy and flexibility of States through sub-schemes.  

• National priorities like Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI), Crop Diversification Program (CDP), Reclamation of Problem Soil (RPS), Foot & Mouth Disease - Control Program (FMD-CP), Saffron Mission, Accelerated Fodder Development Programme, etc. are being implemented through the window of RKVY.