Natural farming for sustainable agriculture
Source: The Sangai Express / Nando Waikhom

Imphal, December 04 2023: Even if Indian agriculture, which relies on modern technology and chemical fertilizers, has increased agricultural productivity in the country by leaps and bounds in the last few decades, it has also been facing a stiff challenge in the backdrop of population explosion, rapid urbanization and climate change, among others.

With these factors becoming a menace in agriculture, the Central Agricultural University, Imphal and its constituent colleges in the North East Region are striving to reinvigorate agriculture in the country through the promotion of "Natural Farming" .

Speaking in this regard, Professor AK Pandey, Dean, College of Horticulture, Central Agricultural University, Bermiok, South Sikkim explained that Indian agriculture can no longer stand on its own due to factors like burgeoning population growth, incessant growth of urbanization, climate change and depleting natural resource base.

He said that agricultural growth after the Green Revolution period has witnessed a 'technology fatigue' and operating at very unfavorable settings of net negative balance of plant nutrients, chemical soil degradation and poor soil health although the introduction of the said agricultural revolution has remarkably increased the food grain production in the country with this year's estimated production being six times higher than 1950/51 (around 330.5 million tons against 51 million tons) .

While citing that the micronutrient deficiency in Indian soil is in the order of 36, 44, 23, 13, 8 and 4% for Zn, S, B, Fe, Mn and Cu, respectively, he said that the soil is continuously depleted of secondary plant nutrients and micronutrients.

Highlighting the repercussions of climate change, AK Pandey stated that climate change has aggravated soil erosion, caused declining organic matter, salinization, soil biodiversity loss, landslides, desertification and flooding.

"The major challenges for sustainable agriculture include increase in rainfall, high inter-annual variability, intense and frequent heat waves, increase in temperature (1.5 - 4.0 �C) and rise in sea level (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2021).According to the Government of India flagship project 'National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture' (NICRA), climate change in the absence of adaptation measures is projected to decrease yields in major crop which is 20 to 47% in rainfed rice, 3.5 to 5% in irrigated rice, 19.3 to 40% in wheat, and 18 to 23% in maize between 2020 and 2080", he added. AK Pandey went on to maintain that the World Bank has cautioned that India would lose 2.8% of its GDP by 2050 on account of climate change impacts causing significant reduction in living standards.

Stating that natural farming has abundant scope and benefits at this juncture, AK Pandey expressed belief in the words of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that Indian agriculture should be taken out of the chemistry lab, connected to the lab of nature with an emphasis on the use of natural eco-friendly methods of agricultural farming.

He further pointed out that natural farming improves soil fertility, environmental health and contributes in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions besides enhancing farmer's income.

Conveying that natural farming is being promoted in India as Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP) or India Natural Farming Scheme and introduced during 2021 as a sub scheme of centrally sponsored scheme Prampragat Krishi Vikash Yojana (PKVY) which started in 2015, he said that a financial assistance of Rs 12,200/ hectare is provided for 3 years for capacity building, cluster formation, organizing conferences, and continuous handholding by trained personnel and certification under the scheme (BPKP) .

Mention may also be made here that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announced that chemical free natural farming will be promoted throughout the country in her Budget 2022 speech.

The Government of India has also announced that it will constitute a committee to promote Zero Budget Natural Farming which will make suggestions and strategies to introduce natural farming to farmers and in university curriculums.

He continued to add that the introduction of natural farming in Agricultural Universities Course Curriculum has been done as a new initiative designed by ICAR to reorient agriculture graduates towards learning one's ancestral agricultural knowledge, employability and entrepreneurship.

Informing that CAU, Imphal is taking the lead to start the UG programme in natural farming from 2024-25 session to six of its constituent colleges including College of Agriculture, Imphal, the Professor continued that the CAU has prioritized enhancing farmers income (200%), reducing fertilizer use (25%) and water use (20%), increasing use of renewable energy (50%), reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity (45%) and rehabilitating degraded land of 26 million mega hectares.

This article is written under the 3rd Award in the Scientific Journalism Programme of the Public Relations and Media Management Cell, CAU, Imphal.

Dr Indira Thounaojam, Information and Publicity Officer and Head, PRMM Cell, CAU Imphal can be contacted at [email protected] to know more about this article and related information .

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