Zero budget farming is farm practice which is derived from traditional farm practices where no chemical fertilizers used. In zero budget natural farming, nothing needs to be purchased from outside, seed, fertilizer, pesticides, all are produced locally or root zone only. It is a practice where 98 to 99 nutrients in zero budget farming are taken from the air, water, and solar energy, only nearly 1 % of nutrients are taken from soils.
How is Zero budget farming is different from organic farming?
In organic farming, no chemical fertilizers and pesticides used but seed and organic fertilizer and pesticides cost are high as it is not grown in the root zone by self-help group farmers, it needs to purchase from outside.
Whereas in zero budget farming, it is farm practice where no additional cost is needed, all the input materials for farming are grown by a farmer only.
What process is followed in zero budget farming?
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| Zero budget natural farming |
As per the father of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) Mr. Palekar, the soil has the all the nutrients which plant needed to grow, to make this available four pillars of ZBNF needs to be used:
- Seed treatment or Bijamrti: seed treated with cow dung and urines.
- Soil treatment or Jivamrit: to increase microbial activities, animal dung, urine, Jaggery, and other local materials used as a fertilizer.
- Herbicide treatment or Mulching: the soil is covered with crop and straw residue to prevent herbicide growth. It is also used to retain moisture.
- Air infusion in soil or Waaphasa: In Waaphasa, the building of soil humus is done in order to increase the air in the soils
There are three methods used in pest and insect management:
The above all are prepared by Nim, cow dung & urine, tobacco, garlic, chilly, etc.
- Agniastra
- Brahmastra
- Nimastra
The above all are prepared by Nim, cow dung & urine, tobacco, garlic, chilly, etc.
Importance of zero budget farming?
- Reduction in the cost of farming will improve the welfare of farmers.
- It Improves the health of the soil
- In the long run, the productivity of the farmland will not be reduced, as, in other farm practices, the productivity of the farmland gets reduced after using chemical fertilizer.
- It cut down the toxicity in the food chain.
What needs to be done?
- Farmer association is needed at the local level to make availability of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides at the root zone.
- Need training for the farmer.
- The government should incentivize the zero budget farming attractive.
Criticism or drawback of zero budget farming?
- The green revolution came to ensure food security in India however due to mismanagement and excess use of the fertilizer it created many environmental problems. Experts of farming still doubt zero budget farming practice, as in Sikkim state, it has been noticed that the yield of the farmers is declining due to organic farming. Zero budget farming is not a full-proof farming practice where it can be ensured that yield will not decline and food security of the country will not get hampered.
- Family labor cost, rent of land, cow maintenance, electricity cost, etc are ignored in the cost calculation
- Fertilizer and microbes are not uniformly in all the soils, a huge lacking of humus in Indian soils can make ZBNF costly. The only solution for all the Indian soils problem, may not be a practical solution.
Zero Budget natural farming in India?
Andhra Pradesh became the first state of zero budget farming state which has claimed the reduction in the input cost by practicing zero budget farming.
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