Zero Budget Natural Farming(ZBNF) is a chemical free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practices. It marks a departure from the use of expensive chemical fertilizers , insecticides and pesticides.
Subash Palekar, known as the father of ZBNF introduced it in the mid 1990s to move away from the use of chemicals in farming as an alternative to Green Revolution method of use of fertilizers and intensive irrigation.
Need for ZBNF:
- Rising cost of agricultural inputs leads to indebtedness and suicide among farmers.
- Use of chemicals has a devastating impact on the environment and long term fertility of soil.
Features of ZBNF:
- Application of Jeevamrutha which is a mixture of fresh desi cow dung, aged desi cow urine, jaggery , pulse flour , water and soil on farmland. It is a fermented microbial culture that adds nutrients to the soil and acts as a catalytic agent to promote activity of microorganisms and earthworms in the soil. The requirement is of only one cow that too of Indian breed.
- Application of Bijamrutha to treat seeds to increase their chances of germination. It is a mixture of cow dung , cow urine, lime and water.
- For pest management and insects, a concoction is prepared using neem leaves and pulp, tobacco and green chillies .
Limitations concerning ZBNF:
- This method of farming is being debated. There is not much research going on about this .
- Many farmers reverted to conventional methods of farming after seeing drops in ZBNF returns.
Implementing States of ZBNF:
- Haryana – 80 acres in Gurukul, Kurukshetra
- Punjab – 1000 acres
- Karnataka – 10 Agro climate zones
- Andhra Pradesh – 5.01 lakh acres
- Himachal Pradesh – Across the state
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