June 2025
Ecological wellness is a prerequisite to restore environment which is gifted to us by nature. Soil is the key component of an agro-ecosystem that needs to be conserved biologically. ‘Natural Farming’, a sustainable agro-ecological traditional farming approach offers solutions to soil quality restoration and the challenges of climate change in agriculture, as well.
The escalation in food production, without considering the ecological balance, often makes our environment more susceptible towards degradation. The overuse of agrochemicals in traditional agriculture has harmed food quality, polluted the environment, contributed to global warming and negatively impacted human and animal health. According to FAI (2020), increased fertilizer use (13 times between 1970 and 2020) of our country has caused a nutrient imbalance in the soil and negatively affected the crop response ratio with burden of expenditure. Moreover, the adverse change of climate affects reproduction and grain filling particularly by facilitating the heat stress, shortening of growing period, water table drop, erratic rainfall, long dry spells, pest population explosion, drought and biodiversity loss. The concerns of such problems against the environmental and agricultural sustainability in the country prompted the scientists and policymakers to adopt different cost-effective climate resilient approaches to ensure more food production with low carbon foot print, cost friendly and pollution-free sustainable environment.
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Box 1: Natural Farming Natural farming is conceptualized as the chemical-free, site-specific, climate-resilient and adaptive agro-ecological Indian traditional farming approach offering solutions to food insecurity, farmers’ distress, health problems, high budget, greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission, carbon budgeting and climate change. Natural farming is not a technique rather a process; a way of keeping ourselves harmonically connected to the nature by supplementing profound understanding of ecology and on-farm resource utilization. It involves the integration of crops, trees and livestock with optimum use of functional biodiversity. |
The Natural Farming (NF), proposed by Masanobu Fukuoka in Japan during 1935, emphasizes on the laws of nature i.e. to use chemical free practices and natural resources which are manageable for better economy and conservation of soil vitality. Under the alarming risk of climate change on agriculture, natural farming is emerging as a climate resilient technology. There are several states, mostly Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, are practicing NF intensively covering about 6.5 million hectare area. The natural farming throughout the country is now promoted through “National Mission” and initiatives by government and different organizations.
The role of Natural farming on soil and ecology health improvement
Soil microbes, as the responsible drivers in nutrient cycling process, depolymerise and mineralize organic forms of nutrients (N, P & S) mostly bound in recalcitrant organic forms, and convert in bioavailable form to the plant. In NF, the concoctions are niche-specific and microbiologically enriched as it consists diverse beneficial bacteria, fungi and microbes which have strong contribution in soil health improvement. The incorporation of these organic inputs to the soil significantly promotes the density and diversity (20-30%) of the soil microbial ecosystem, enzyme mediated mineralization process, carbon storing, organic matter decomposition by lowering carbon foot print and nutrient availability to the plant. This process also helps to reduce the inorganic fertilizer requirement as microbes-plant root association in rhizosphere improves in considerable extent.
The use of natural biological concoctions viz. Panchagavya, Sasyagavya, Jeevamrut, Ghanjeevamrit, Beejamrut and Kunapajala hasten the soil microbiota amplification. These indigenous concoctions foster the enzymatic activity of the soil microorganisms with niche specificity. Moreover, these concoctions contain plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, cyanobacteria, mycorrhiza, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Pseudomonas, Bacillus spp., photosynthetic & phyllospheric bacteria, vitamins, macro & micro minerals, hormones, plant growth promoting regulators (IAA and GA3), bio-pesticide components etc. which increases nutrient availability (by nitrogen fixation, phosphorous and potassium solubilisation), organic matter decomposition and humus production, seed germination index, plant growth and reduces fungal infestation. These concoctions can be utilised as a priming media for the crops without any involvement of synthetic external inputs to soil.
Components of Natural Farming
In natural farming, the farmers are expected to add organic inputs from the same farm land as microbial concoctions to promote soil biological health. The four main components of Natural Farming are as follows.
- Beejamrut
It is a fermented microbial concoction containing loads of beneficial microbes and used to treat the seed, initiate vigour to the seeds by providing a defence mechanism against seed-related diseases, improves germination rates and promotes the plant growth.
- Jeevamrut
It is a fermented microbial concoction which stimulates the site-specific biological richness in soil and promotes the enzymatic activity of beneficial soil microorganisms and phyllospheric microorganisms of leaf with a priming effect.
- Acchadana/Mulching
The Acchadana involves incorporation of cover crops (symbiotic intercrops and mixed crops), jute felt or agriculture residues to cover the top soil and maintain the soil moisture, temperature and soil microbial activity. Besides, mulching fastens organic matter decomposition resulting humus formation, fosters the earthworm population, escalates ecological biodiversity, reinvigorates soil nutrient content, promotes aeration and water retention, reduces evaporation loss, lessens the need for tillage and minimizes the weed abundance.
- Whapasa
Whapasa means the balancing of air and moisture in the soil pores that provide oxygen, moisture and nutrients to the soil organisms and plant roots. Water conservation and optimized water application based on crop requirements are paramount criteria for natural farming as excessive water harms the plant by facilitating oxygen deficiency. Balancing of air and moisture in soil matrix through Whapasa efficiently stimulates microbial activity, optimizes water use efficiency, minimizes irrigation requirement and fosters plant growth.
- Plant Protection
The process of Natural Farming involves utilization of biological concoction like Agniastra, Neemastra, Brahmastra, Dashparni, Shunti asthra, sour butter milk etc. to reduce the pest and diseases of the plant. This concoction doesn’t affect the beneficial flora and fauna of the ecosystem.
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Box 2: Preparation of concoctions
Ingredients Fresh Cow dung – 5 kg Cow Urine – 5 Litres Quick lime/Calcium oxide – 50g Handful of undisturbed soil Water – 20 litres
Ingredients Fresh Cow dung – 5 kg Cow Urine – 5 Litres Jaggery – 2 Kg Gram Flour – 2 Kg Handful of undisturbed soil Water – 200 litres
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Research results
A research conducted by the authors on the characterization of the NF inputs as the microbial consortia and source of enzymes, registered the significant abundance of beneficial soil microbes and nutrient cycling linked enzymes in those concoctions that might act as microbial sink to improve the soil biological health, ease of the NPK mineralization processes and reduce the requirement of inorganic fertilizers (Figure 1).
Acchadana (mulching) technique significantly promotes metabolic activity of soil biota by conserving optimum soil air-moisture-temperature, hastening the organic matter decomposition process, increasing water retention (22-30%) and transmission capacity, moderating hydro-thermal regime in soil, reducing soil compaction, suppressing the weed growth, minimizing the evaporation loss and irrigation frequency (35-45%), maintaining groundwater level (-8 cm/year in NF and -22cm/year in traditional practice), enabling aquifer recharge, restricting the salinization build up in plant root zone, reducing the soil erosion (32-40%) and wastage of agricultural left-over as well as the cost of cultivation. Mulching with cover crops also promotes the same advantage including carbon sequestration (0.20-0.45 Mg C ha-1 year-1) and scope of increased agronomic yield and economic benefit. Furthermore, crop rotation, crop diversity, intercropping, composting, and agro-forestry reduce GHGs emission (38-50%), enhance carbon sequestration (1.6-2.0 tons of CO2/hectare/year), promote biological control of pest and diseases occurrence and also improve the genetic conservation that helps to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Zero or minimum tillage improves soil aggregate structure, maintains soil pores, conserves soil moisture, sequestrates soil carbon (57±14g C m−2 yr−1), conserves water (20-30%) and saves energy. At Andhra Pradesh, natural farming requires 45-70% less (compared to conventional) input energy (1250 gigajoules per acre) and results in 55-85% lower emissions (1.4-6.6 Mt CO2eq per acre).
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Table 1. The enzymatic activity of natural farming concoctions (Panchagavya, Sasyagavya, Jeevamrut & Beejamrut)
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The improvement of soil health by balancing the optimum ratio of air and water molecules in soil pores, i.e. Whapasa, has considerable impact on the improvement of soil productivity. This condition helps in promoting water availability and water use efficiency to the crops through improved soil capillary actions, reduced irrigation requirements, oxygen availability to the root and resilience to drought.
In addition, livestock integration in NF through animal grazing helps to reduce herbicide requirement, incorporate in situ organic matter addition and increase the availability of animal-based waste product that can considerably promote soil health improvement.
Therefore, natural farming practices improve soil health by providing a better environment for soil organisms to thrive, improving soil biological diversity and the sustainability of the crop production. In NF, increased efficiency of inputs and creation of socio-economic improvements that are inclusive of small and marginal farmers will considerably promote the mitigation of climate change and adaptation of climate resilient agri-techniques, especially adaptation-led mitigation.
Conclusion
Natural Farming is advocated to be agro-ecology based climate resilient farming system that increases the crop yields, minimizes cultivation costs, reduces inimical impact on agro-ecosystem by replacing the agrochemicals and adopting climate resilient techniques viz. limited uses of fossil fuel, reduced tillage, natural resource conservation and utilization, crop diversification and ecological integration. The exclusion of synthetic inputs in NF emanates carbon sequestration and lowers GHGs emissions. Furthermore, NF definitely increases smallholder farmers’ financial comfort, seed autonomy, metabolite free quality produces and expectantly scope of carbon farming in future. Considering the current scenario of our country, the adoption of natural farming may be the successful strategy to mitigate the soil health degradation, promote climate resiliency, sustainable production and economic profit of the produce.
References
- Lakhani H, Chinchure S and Geete M., Natural Farming: A Strategic Tool for Climate Change Adaptation. Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci, 2024, 13(10): 198-205
- NAAS (2013). Climate Resilient Agriculture in India. Policy Paper No. 65, Eds. Devakumar C. & Chhonkar P. K. National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, 20 p.
- Suganthy, M., Renuka R. B. and Sharma N. R., Natural Farming for Sustainable Agriculture. Eds. Suganthy M., Rani R B. and Sharma N R. Hyderabad: National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE). Hyderabad, India, 2023
- Suresh N S., Spurthi R., Arunita B., Haritha H., Arjun S., and Anantha Lakshmi P., Life Cycle Assessment of ZBNF and Non-ZBNF: A Study in Andhra Pradesh, CSTEP. Karnataka, India, 2019, 43 p.
Monidipta Saha, and Krishnendu Ray
Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra, RKMVERI, Arapanch, Sonarpur, Kolkata-150
Email: moni.rkmvukvk@gmail.comRiddhi Chatterjee
IRDM Faculty Centre, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI),
Narendrapur, Kolkata-103
