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Discuss the challenges in adopting Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) on a large scale in India.

  • 08 Aug 2024

In her Budget proposals for 2024-25, Union Finance Minister announced that in the next two years, one crore farmers across the country will be initiated into zero budget natural farming supported by certification and branding.

  • Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZNBF) means raising crops without using any fertilizers and pesticides or any other external materials.
  • The word Zero Budget refers to the zero cost of production of all crops. ZBNF guides the farmers towards sustainable farming practices thus helps in retaining soil fertility, to ensure a chemical free agriculture and ensure low cost of production (zero cost) and thereby enhancing the farmers income.
  • In short, ZBNF is a farming method that believes in growing crops in tune with nature.

Challenges in ZBNF Adoption

  1. Convincing the Stakeholders: Unless the scientific data and evidences are created by the research institutes, it would be difficult to convince different stakeholders to develop broad consensus for its adoption. In such situation, there will always be suspicion among the stakeholders and farmers about its efficacy.
  2. Difficulty in Adoption by Large-size Farm Holdings: It has been observed that ZBNF practice requires regular monitoring of the field for monitoring of nutrient deficiency, preparation of huge quantity of Jeevamrita, thus, increasing the cost of crop cultivation. Therefore, adoption by large farm-size holding would be a herculean task.
  3. Monocropping Regions: In case of monocropping, wherein huge quantity of similar types of nutrients are applied, this practice may not give better/same crop yield as compared to existing practices of application of high-yielding variety, chemical fertilizers & pesticides.
  4. Reduced Scope of Mechanization: The benefits of ZBNF can only be realized when farmers cultivate several crops together as inter-crop or mixed crops so that demand for specific nutrients don’t lead to nutrient exhaustion in the soil. This would create big hindrance in large scale adoption of farm machinery.
  5. Concern regarding Yield Plateau: Since the ZBNF practice forbids application of improved cultivars/ hybrid seeds, it would be difficult to keep the farmers motivated to grow the crops with this practice, as possibility of reaching yield plateau is quite imminent.