Natural Farming Conclave

The Natural Farming Conclave was organised on July 10, 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the conclave in virtual mode and noted that ‘Sabka Prayaas’ is the base to boost India’s development.

Highlights

• The Natural Farming Conclave was organised in Surat, Gujarat.
• It witnessed the participation of thousands of farmers and other stakeholders who have successfully adopted the Natural farming in Surat.
• On the occasion, PM highlighted the significance of “Natural Farming Model”.
• Natural farming helps in feeding millions. It also protects people from deadly diseases, which are caused due to pesticides and chemicals.

Background

Under the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration in March 2022, PM Modi had addressed a panchayat congregation in Gujrat. During his address, PM has asked at least 75 farmers from each village to switch to natural farming. Thus, under an initiative in Surat, 75 farmers were identified in every village panchayat and were trained to do natural farming. Training was given in 90 different clusters. A total of 41000 farmers were trained across the district. Now, PM urged to adopt this “Surat Model of Natural farming” across India.

About natural farming

Natural farming is a traditional indigenous agriculture practice, based on livestock. It does not use any chemical fertilizer or pesticides or organic fertilizers like organic manure, vermicompost, biofertilizer, bio-pesticides. This farming is done with the objective of reducing farming cost and thus it offers benefit mostly to small and marginal farmers. It seeks to do away with all synthetic chemical inputs and switch to “on-farm biomass recycling”.  It mainly emphasises on biomass mulching, use of cow dung-urine formulations, and similar plant-based preparations.

Challenges with shifting towards natural farming

Transition from traditional fertiliser and pesticide-based systems to natural farming needs large-scale access to natural farming techniques because in this technique, no inorganic chemical is added for farming purposes.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2022

Category: Economy & Banking Current Affairs • Summits and Conferences