Zero Cost Natural Farming Can Save Farmers, Environment

Mohinder Singh Chouhan

(The writer works in Horticulture and Forestry College in Hamirpur)

The present agriculture system, market run modern agricultural techniques and increasing production cost have adversly hit the natural agriculture practices. Production has become stagnant despite regular use of fertilizers and inorganic manures. And the farmer is forced to raise loans in order to practice farming. Failure of one single crop lands the farmer in debt trap that further leads him towards the decision of suicide.

Unabated use of chemicals has reduced productivity of the soil and also harming environment and health of human beings. Farmers are in a dilemma as what to do next due to increasing production cost and declining income. As a result, farmers are alienating from agriculture. And their leftover will for the profession has been killed by abandoned and wild animals. With 35% of Indian population falling below poverty line, experts suggest various methods to increase production. But there is a huge difference between bookish and practical situations.

We need to explore new options to deal with the real life situations. Many people have presented an option in this regard in front of the nation. One such name is Padma Shri Subhash Palekar who categorically denies modern agriculture system and considers zero production cost natural farming as viable option. Subhash who belongs to Amaravati area of Maharashtra feels that inorganic farming has negative effects on human health and it leads to deadly diseases like diabetes, blood pressure and cancer etc. It is a costly option that is out of reach of common and poor farmer.

Palekar opines that farming can be practised on 30 acres of land with the cow dung available from indigenous Indian cow breed. There are a minimum of 300 crore and a maximum of 500 crore bacterias in one gram of cow dung of indigenous cow. To practise farming on one acre of land, 10 kilograms of indigenous breed cow dung is required. Ten kilograms of cow dung contains 30 lakh bacterias that is enough for one acre of land when given once in a month. Farming using cow dung and cow urine is a zero production cost farming.

Therefore it is a demand of time to shift from modern farming system and adopt zero production cost natural farming. Honourable Governor of Himachal Pradesh Acharya Devvrat is a live example of zero production cost natural farming. He is practising this model of farming in his 200 acres of land in Haryana. To achieve the target of doubling the income of farmers, the farming model suggested by Subhash Palekar should be adopted.

Especially it should be followed in hill state like Himachal Pradesh where modern farming system has not expanded to its full strength.

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