Zero Budget Natural Farming

Zero budget farming was mooted as a key strategy of the government in the budget to accomplish the goal of doubling the farmer’s income by 2022.

What is zero budget farming?

Zero Budget Farming is a farming practice propounded by Padma Shri awardee Subhash Palekar of Amravati in Maharashtra and he prefers to call ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)’.

ZBNF is based on four chakras:

• Increasing the count of beneficial microbes in the soil.
• Creating resilience in plants against pests, diseases and weather shocks.
• Reducing the cost of cultivation with minimal cash inputs; and
• Recovering the cost of unavoidable cash expenses with income from secondary crops planted with the main crop.

Farming Practice

• To increase microbial activity in the soil, Jivamrita which is a diluted fermentation of cow dung, cow urine, gram flour, jaggery and bund soil is used.
• Seeds are coated with bijamrita which is a fungicide made of cow dung, cow urine, lime and bund soil.
• Mulching or covering the soil with straw or crop residues to conserve moisture and prevent the growth of weeds.
• Intercropping with symbiotic crops.
• Waaphasa to increase aeration of the soil and make oxygen available to microbes and roots. Waaphasa refers to the microclimate in the soil, by which the soil organisms and roots can live freely with the availability of sufficient air and essential moisture in the soil.  Waaphasa means the mixture of 50 % air and 50 % water vapours in the cavities between two soil particles.

High Costs of farm inputs is one of the reasons for the huge debt the farmers are shouldering. The ZBNF reduces the budget of these inputs to zero by encouraging intercropping and natural ways of farming.