By King RJ
Bhadarwah, Dec 12 : To encourage farmers to adopt chemical free farming, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare through Krishi Vigyan Kendra starts training programme on natural farming in hilly Doda district from Monday.
The flagship programme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare is primarily aimed at to promote organic farming by motivating and training the farmers to adopt natural and traditional ways of farming techniques there by minimising the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides.
The training programme in which 50 farmers drawn from different panchayts of Doda district are participating started at KVK Bhadarwah, where Scientist and Subject matter specialists (SMS) will train the participants in natural farming.
The programme was inaugurated by DDC Councilor from Bhadarwah west Thakur Yudhvir Singh Billawaria, who was the chief guest on the occasion while Incharge KVK Bhadarwah Dr Amit Charak Presided the inaugural function.
It’s notable to mention here that out of total 766 districts in India 425 districts have been choosen for Natural farming across India by Ministry and District Doda is one among them.
Speaking with the farmers Dr Amit Charak said that Natural Farming is the need of the time and center Govt has made a resolve to replace chemical farming with natural farming.
“Evidence shows that moving towards sustainable practices will conserve natural resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, potentially reduce cost of production and climate-related risks for farmers. In line with these ideas, the prime minister himself has urged farmers to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and also remarked on the use of ‘zero budget natural farming’ for soil conservation,” Dr Charak said.
Calling for a “back to the basics” approach, Dr G N Jha of KVK said, “We need to replicate this innovative model through which in a few States, farmers are already being trained in this practice. Steps such as this can help in doubling our farmers’ income and KVK through aggressive training in motivating programmes will try it’s best to make it possible in the length and breadth of hilly Doda district.”
Jha said that training on Natural Farming under the ICAR-ATARI, Zone-I, Ludhiana Sponsored project “Outscaling of Natural Farming through KVKs is aimed at to switch farmers to natural farming.
Yudhvir Singh Thakur, DDC Member, Sarpanch Parveen Jaryal, Jaswant Manhas Progressive Farmer (Matka Khad) and others were present on the occasion.
Zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) is a method of chemical-free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practices.
It was originally promoted by Maharashtrian agriculturist and Padma Shri recipient Subhash Palekar, who developed it in the mid-1990s as an alternative to the Green Revolution’s methods driven by chemical fertilizers and pesticides and intensive irrigation. He argued that the rising cost of these external inputs was a leading cause of indebtedness and suicide among farmers, while the impact of chemicals on the environment and on long-term fertility was devastating. Without the need to spend money on these inputs — or take loans to buy them — the cost of production could be reduced and farming made into a “zero budget” exercise, breaking the debt cycle for many small farmers.
