Issues associated with Natural Farming in India
Natural farming: What is it?
- The idea behind natural farming is to employ conventional methods and locally available resources to produce food without the usage of chemicals. Based on agroecology, it incorporates cattle, trees, and crops.
- Beneficial microorganisms are also used in natural farming to enhance the health and quality of the soil.
Comparing Organic and Natural Farming:
- Organic farming: This type of farming use conventional techniques to raise livestock and cultivate crops devoid of artificial fertilisers. This entails staying away from growth hormones, pesticides, antibiotics, genetically modified organisms, and synthetic fertilisers.
In what ways does it vary from Organic Farming?
- While organic farming follows strict guidelines and concentrates on using organic materials, natural farming promotes little human intervention and ecological mimicking.
- While organic farming permits the use of compost, mineral rocks, and fertilisers derived from plants or animals, natural farming forbids the use of any imported fertilisers or soil supplements.
- While organic farming employs organic materials and practices to maximise the productivity and ecological vitality of agricultural ecosystems, natural farming depends on ecological principles to maintain plant and animal health, conserve soil health, enhance biodiversity, and increase crop yields.
- While organic farming contains a list of permitted chemicals that are thought to be safe for both humans and the environment, natural farming discourages the use of any chemicals.
- Organic farming is a comprehensive agricultural system that is painstakingly planned and regulated, whereas natural farming is founded on a philosophical approach that reflects the wisdom of nature itself.
What Advantages Does Natural Farming Offer?
Advantages for the Environment:
- Healthy Soil: By encouraging the growth of organic matter and helpful microbes, natural agricultural practices like mulching and composting improve soil fertility. Better crop yields, enhanced nutrient availability, and enhanced water retention result from this.
- Water conservation: By keeping moisture in the soil using natural techniques like mulching and drip irrigation, less water is required than would otherwise be needed. This is essential for managing water resources sustainably and battling drought.
- Decreased Pollution: Natural farming greatly lowers the pollution of soil, water bodies, and the atmosphere by using natural alternatives in place of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. This shields human health and ecosystems from dangerous substances.
- Mitigation of Climate Change: When compared to conventional agriculture, natural farming methods typically have a reduced carbon footprint. Furthermore, good soil functions as a carbon sink, absorbing greenhouse gases and assisting in the mitigation of climate change.
Benefits for Farmers:
- Lower Expenses: Because natural farming makes use of locally accessible resources and on-farm inputs like compost and biopesticides, it is less dependent on costly inputs from outside sources like chemical pesticides and fertilisers. This raises farmer profitability by lowering the total cost of production.
- Increased Farm Resilience: By fostering soil health and biodiversity, natural farming practices increase farms’ resistance to extreme weather events like droughts and floods. Farmers face less risk and more stability as a result.
- Improved Farmer Health: Natural farming safeguards farmers’ health and wellbeing by removing exposure to dangerous chemicals.
Benefits to consumers:
- Safer Food: Natural farming yields food that is devoid of dangerous chemical residues, making it safer and healthier for people to eat.
- Better Food Quality: Research indicates that foods grown organically may have higher concentrations of antioxidants and other health-promoting substances, which could benefit consumers’ overall health.
- Support for Sustainable Agriculture: By selecting natural food items, consumers help to foster a more moral and sustainable farming system that is good for the environment and farmers.
What Difficulties Are Associated with Natural Farming?
- Limited market: Due to a lack of suitably distinct markets, standards, and norms, farmers that have been practicing NF do not receive premium pricing for their crops. A lot of farmers acknowledge that most of their NF products are meant for domestic use.
- Furthermore, it is challenging to differentiate natural farming from organic or conventional farming due to a lack of certification and standards.
- Reduced Initial Yields: Natural farming necessitates the gradual development of robust soil ecosystems. When compared to conventional systems that depend on chemical inputs for rapid boosts, this frequently translates into poorer yields in the initial years.
- According to a study conducted in Andhra Pradesh by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, paddy yields on natural farms were 20% lower in the first year than in conventional farms, but they eventually caught up to conventional yields in three years.
- Lack of Awareness and Training: Many farmers are reluctant to move to natural farming methods because they lack the necessary knowledge and expertise. The issue is made worse by restricted access to extension services and training programmes.
- Notwithstanding government campaigns in Himachal Pradesh to encourage natural farming, a large number of farmers are still ignorant of the particular techniques and advantages, which prevents a larger uptake.
- Availability and Affordability of Organic Inputs: Despite the long-term advantages for soil health and market demand, farmers are discouraged from embracing natural cotton production due to the high cost of organic cotton seeds.
- Pest and Disease Management: In the short run, chemical pesticides may be more effective than ecological approaches used in natural farming for controlling pests and diseases. Farmers must take preemptive action and become more watchful as a result.
- For instance, it might be difficult for apple growers in Jammu and Kashmir to control codling moth infestations naturally, so some of them turn to chemical pesticides.
What Actions Are Needed to Encourage Natural Farming?
- Creating Differentiated and Alternative marketplaces: If we must travel to NF, the government ought to look for alternative marketplaces.
The following are some suggestions for growing the NF’s alternative markets:
PDS, or public distribution system:
- By including NF goods into the PDS, farmers can benefit from a stable market as well as increased accessibility to wholesome, chemical-free food for a larger audience.
Make use of the current mechanisms:
- It is also possible to incorporate the current networks of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies and Marketing Federations.
- Purchasing, distribution, and production can all be made more efficient by working with Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).
Midday meal schedule:
- By employing local, decentralised systems instead of importing food, the midday meal programme can expand into a new market. With the help of FPOs, this entails local production, acquisition, storage, and distribution of produce sourced from surrounding areas.
- The motto ought to be “local crops for local requirements.”
Committed Haats:
- Around 43,000 village haats, or farmers’ marketplaces, can be found in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu.
- A small number of them may be devoted to backward integration development and certified NF manufacture.
Form Consumer Associations:
- Consumer cooperatives may also be founded in large cities’ peri-urban and urban districts when there is farmland within a 100-kilometer radius.
- In 2022, 5,000 Self-Help Groups were partnered with Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to acquire pesticide-free produce for offerings (laddu prasadam and anna prasadam) to the deities.
- Effective Certification Implementation: Himachal Pradesh developed a self-certification tool (CETARA-NF) for natural farming to ensure quality without third-party certification, and the government introduced the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS-India) to create a shared understanding among stakeholders. In order to differentiate natural farming (NF) from organic farming, the Bureau of Indian Standards created regulations for NF cultivation and NF produce labelling.
- Effective implementation at the field and market levels requires collaboration from stakeholders, legislative support, and incentives and recognition for standard-abiding behaviour.
- Create Awareness: It’s important to create awareness among customers and farmers. Food and agriculture are strong habits, if not a culture, thus these are not simple chores.
- Despite buyers’ uncertainty regarding the authenticity of the product or label, estimates suggest that this niche industry is expanding at a rate of roughly 20–25% annually!
- We could gradually improve our food systems if we could introduce reliability.
