BATHINDA: Farmers of Punjab have gotten so used to the agriculture of green revolution, which started in the mid-sixties, they are not ready to go back to the old ways of zero-budget natural farming (ZBNF).
Pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers have become the lifeline of farming in Punjab’s Malwa region, even though they know well that these very additions are threatening lives. Of the nearly 1 crore acres of sowing area in Punjab, natural farming is practised on about 1,000 acres in Punjab. Pesticide-free, organic farming, meanwhile, is being done on nearly 10,000 acres.
In organic farming, certain products are brought from the market, whereas everything is made ‘on the farm’ in natural farming — from animal dung to crop residue. “Punjab farmers are getting adequate yield from conventional farming, so it very tough for them to return to natural farming and leave all modern techniques behind,” said M S Sidhu, professor in economics and sociology at Punjab Agriculture University. “Though ZBNF is a good concept, it seems to have no takers in Punjab. Punjabi farmers are enterprising and more into mechanization, so they might not return to natural farming, which needs a lot of hard work,” said farm organization BKU Ugrahan leader Shingara Singh.
However, Jaito-based NGO Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), a big proponent of natural farming, had reintroduced the forgotten concept of natural farming to Punjab in 2005, after it called Maharashtra-based Subhash Palekar, who used to be called the “founder” of natural farming in India in 1990s, to Punjab. Palekar held some workshops and, enthused by it, some farmers adopted naturalfarming.
Then, ZBNF was better known as SPNF, or ‘Subhash Palekar Natural Farming’.
Amarjit Sharma of Chaina village in Faridkot was the first farmer to have started ZBNF in his four acres in 2005. Soon, Amritsar-based Pingalwara Ashram, Hartej Singh of Mehta village in Bathinda, Vinod Jyani of Katehra village in Fazilka, Harjant Singh of Raike Kalan village in Bathinda, Master Madan Lal of Bullowal village in Hoshiarpur, Nirmal Singh of Bhotna village in Barnala, Jatrnail Singh of Majhi village in Sangrur, and Inderjit Singh of Saholi village in Patiala adopted ZBNF before 2010. “We welcome the announcement by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman of adopting of ZBNF. KVM had brought the idea of natural farming to Punjab. Though it could not succeed much, these is a dire need to promote this concept and pull farmers out of the habit of using excessive insecticides and pesticides to save the health of soil and farmers. At present, nearly 2,000 farmers are with us and are into ZBNF or organic farming,” said KVM executive director Umendra Dutt. “We want the state government to take concrete measures to promote ZBNF, but it must not involve the proponents of modern agriculture in this as they only believe in using fertilizers,” he said.
Umendra said jeevaamrit, beejamrit, ghanjeewamrit, neemaspar, brahamaster and agniastar are some ingredients used in natural farming, apart from cow urine, which is prepared in the fields.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN | The concept of zero-budget natural farming is self-explanatory. If the term is broken into two halves, “zero budget” means without using any credit and without spending any money on purchased inputs, while “natural farming” means farming withnature and without chemicals
THE DIFFERENCE | In zero-budget natural farming, all goods used for growing the crop are made on the farm, with the help of cow urine and dung. Ghee and natural ingredients are also used in this. On the other hand, in organic farming, the fertilizer and insecticides, though organic, are procured from outside
FOUNDER | The concept of zero-budget natural farming was founded by Maharashtra-based Subhash Palekar. It is also an off-shoot of the Japanese idea of natural farming. He founded the concept in the 1990s.
