Natural Farming: A Sustainable Way towards Doubling Farmers’ Income

Abstract

The intensive use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides helped meet the food requirements of ever-growing population, their indiscriminate use has posed serious risks on soil and human health. However, there is an urgent need of sustainable farming systems or chemical-free farming methods, such as natural and organic farming that aim to revitalize environment and meet the food demand. Alternative practices like conservation agriculture, carbon-positive farming, and regenerative agriculture are emerging as solutions to conventional farming's negative environmental impact. Among these, natural farming has gained quite a momentum in nullifying the expenditure incurred as the production cost along with reducing external inputs and emphasizing native resources, agro-ecological principles and community participation. We reviewed scientific published studies in major scientific databases by using keyword like natural farming, ZBNF, soil health, sustainable agriculture etc. as single-word or in different combination in online databases. Over the last decade, efforts have been made in India to promote science-based natural farming practices, a transition of 2% cultivated land annually from conventional to natural farming without affecting food security and expect to replace 20% by 2030 in India. Hence, the future thrusts of natural farming may not lie in boosting crop yield rather it may boost farmers' income through nullifying the production cost (zero budget farming) and long-term sustainability replenishing soil health and ultimately human and animal health.