Innovation in Agriculture Zero Budget Natural Farming (Z.B.N.F) of A.P : for farmers, society, environment and our collective future T. Vijay Kumar, I.A.S ( Retired) Advisor, Agriculture, and Vice Chairman, Rythu sadhikara samstha Govt. of Andhra Pradesh [email protected]
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Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) of AP : for farmers, society
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Innovation in Agriculture Zero Budget Natural Farming (Z.B.N.F)
of A.P : for farmers, society, environment and our collective future
T. Vijay Kumar, I.A.S ( Retired) Advisor, Agriculture, and Vice Chairman, Rythu sadhikara samstha Govt. of Andhra Pradesh [email protected]
– increasing yields - both short term and long term
– regular streams of income through out the year
– Climate change resilience ( tolerance to drought and heavy rains)
• Freedom from hunger and improved health
– more food, safe food and nutritious food
Why Z.B.N.F
• Protect soil health and environmental health. Enhanced soil organic matter, soil microbiota and fauna, better water holding, better bio diversity, better mineral absorption, etc.
• For Governments: accelerate achievement of SDGs, compete better in agriculture markets, savings in fertiliser subsidies, savings in health expenditure
• Safeguarding our collective future – survival and prosperity of future generations
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What is Z.B.N.F? - farming in “harmony with nature”.
Zero budget natural farming is a complete paradigm shift from external input based Green revolution. Pioneered by Padma Shri awardee, Sh. Subhash Palekar, “ Rishi Krishi”, about 25 years ago. He is revered by Z.B.N.F farmers, in all states of the country Z.B.N.F is the future of agriculture, firmly rooted in Indian traditions
Core Principles of Z.B.N.F
2. JEEVAMRUTHAM Enhance soil microbiome through an ‘inoculum’ of fermented cow dung, cow urine and other local ingredients
1.BEEJAMRUTHAM Microbial seed coating through cow urine and dung based formulations.
3. COVER CROPS and MULCHING: Ground to be kept covered with crops, and also crop residues
4. WAAPHASA
Fast build up of soil humus through ZBNF leads to soil aeration, soil structure, and water harnessing
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Drought proofing in Anantpur through Pre Monsoon Navdhanya
9 Natural farming Fellows undertook pre monsoon sowing
Land preparation by ploughing and applying Ghanajeevamrutham
Navdhanya seeds treated with beejamrutham and broadcasted on the field
Mulching done by ground nut and bajra husk
ZBNF
Impact of WAPHASA - Pre Kharif 2018 – Drought Year
Germination observed within 8 days of sowing
Lush green Navdhanya crops with minimal irrigation
Robust plant produce Healthy root nodules Increase in soil moisture
seed treatment with
Beejamrutham
Ghanajeevamrutam preparation
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Enhance soil biology through continuous creation of ‘humus’ / soil organic matter: Cowdung and cow urine based fermentations – ghana jeevamrutham, dhrava jeevamarutham
Indigenous cow ( ‘desi’) is essential. Dung and urine from one cow is adequate for 30 acres
Inter-crops and border crops
mulching
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Core philosophy of ZBNF
• Air, water and soil has all nutrients that plants require, and, in abundant quantities. Hence there is no need to add synthetic fertilizers from outside
• The nutrients in the soil are in a ‘locked’ form – and as such plants cannot use them.
• Plants exude around 40% of the ‘food’ they produce through photosynthesis through the root hair, and, along with it they also exude enzymes, unique to their DNA
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Core philosophy of ZBNF
• The exudates are the food for the soil microbes, and they multiply, their predators multiply, and the entire soil food web gets activated
• This triggers the ‘exchange’ process between plants, soil microbes and soil nutrients. The plentiful ‘locked’ minerals are made bio-available to plants
• ZBNF’s practices stimulate this process and build soil fertility on a continuous basis
Z.B.N.F and Agro ecology
In international classification, Z.B.N.F comes under climate change resilient, Agro ecology, more specifically under “Regenerative agriculture”. Regenerative Agriculture is a holistic land management practice that leverages the power of photosynthesis in plants to close the carbon cycle, and build soil health, crop resilience and nutrient density. Other terms are: “carbon farming’, “ liquid carbon pathway”, etc.
• Pest management through sound agronomy and only where necessary use of botanical extracts – agni asthram, brahma asthram, etc.
(Once soil fertility improves to a optimal level there is no need for botanicals) • Indigenous seeds – are essential. They have co –
evolved for thousands of years. They are more resilient, more productive and respond better to Z.B.N.F.
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• Investment for the main crop – field crop or tree crop - recovered through income from short duration inter crops
Hence the term zero budget
Other benefits from intercropping:
• Soil humus production enhanced, more nutritious food, pest management, risk management, optimal sunlight utilization, water conservation.
Why is it called ‘Zero budget’
21
Is Z.B.N.F “organic” or is it “traditional” • Z.B.N.F is not “ organic input agriculture”. There
are no external inputs such as ‘bio – fertilisers’, compost, or vermi compost, or exotic and expensive ‘bio’ products, etc. Organic input based agriculture very expensive
• The output of Z.B.N.F meets the requirements of “organic” certification
• Z.B.N.F is not ‘traditional agriculture’. Cow dung
formulation in Z.B.N.F is not a bio-fertilizer, it is an inoculum.
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Z.B.N.F implementation: AP’s Z.B.N.F initiative – Phase I (2016 -22)
Scope:
• 500,000 farmers and 500,000 hectares, in
3000 villages
• all 5 agro climatic zones of the state,
• all 13 districts of the State. and,
• all 664 mandals of the state
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A.P strategy: Whole village approach. All farmers – with a focus on small and marginal farmers, are motivated to practice Z.B.N.F. Plan: all cultivable area in the village should come under Z.B.N.F in 5 years
Farmers Coverage over 3 years: • 1st year 15%, 2nd year 50%, 3rd year > 80% Each farmer: takes 3 years to cover the entire holding – 1/4th / ½ / full area
In 5 years, a village becomes a ‘bio village’
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A.P Z.B.N.F Phase I programme
Funding:
• Programme funding – 2016 – 2022: Rashtriya Krishi vikas yojana (R.K.V.Y) and Paramparagat Krishi vikas yojana (P.K.V.Y). Central assistance to State programmes of Ministry of Agriculture ( total estimated requirement – Rs.1250 crores
• All Staff costs: State Govt
• Technical support: a grant of Rs.100 crores from Azim Premji Philanthropic initiatives (A.P.P.I)
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AP’s achievements - outreach
• Programme design and preparatory work – June 2015 to Jan, 2016.
• Sh. Palekar’s 8 day training in Jan, 2016 for 5000 farmers.
• 1st year - 2016 – 17: 40,000 farmers in 704 villages
• 2nd year – 2017 -18: 163,000 farmers in 972 villages
• 3rd year – 2018-19 target: 500,000 farmers, 3015 villages
2018 – 19: 15 % of all villages, and 8% farmers – a tipping point
Results: Yields are increasing across crops ZBNF and Non-ZBNF Yields in kgs/ha
Food Crops: Kharif 2017
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Paddy : 1,155 CCEs
5,418 4,960 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 9%
Guli Ragi: 6 CCEs
2,007 1,434 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 40%
Ragi: 17 CCEs
1,539 1,313 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 17%
State Avg Yield 5049
State Avg Yield 1131 State Avg Yield 1131
Blackgram: 10 CCEs
860 708 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 21% State Avg Yield 823
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Groundnut (Irrigated): 77 CCEs
2,555 2,034 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 26%
Groundnut (Rainfed): 65 CCEs
2,286 1,680 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 36%
Cotton: 33 CCEs
1,355 1,217 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 11%
Chillies: 13 CCEs
6,832 5,427 ZBNF NON-ZBNF
+ 26%
State Avg Yield 1292 State Avg Yield 1292
State Avg Yield 4574 State Avg Yield 547
Results: Yields are increasing across crops ZBNF and Non-ZBNF Yields in kgs/ha
Commercial crops: Kharif 2017
Crop Costs in
ZBNF Costs in non
ZBNF Net income
in ZBNF
Net income in Non ZBNF
% Change in Net
Income
Paddy 30,983 43,839 60,743 40,355 51%
Guli Ragi 7,375 8,125 42,789 27,717 54%
Ragi 6,875 7,625 31,590 25,195 25%
Blackgram 15,776 18,595 39,034 27,243 43%
Net incomes have increased ZBNF and Non-ZBNF Yields in Rs/ha
Z.B.N.F in A.P - key pillars The A.P programme has 6 key pillars :
1. Z.B.N.F is a transformative idea. Positive results experienced by farmers from the first year itself.
2. Govt. support and ownership. Agri dept, at all levels has owned the program
3. Dedicated implementation arrangements – state level to village level – through Rythu sadhikara samstha
4. Implementation by farmers. Farmer trainers created by the programme itself
5. Women SHGs and Farmers Institutions – for scaling up and sustaining and deepening the programme
6. Collaboration and networks – global and national - science, markets, finances, policy, development institutions
1. Key role of Sh. Subhash Palekar, father of ZBNF
3 mega
trainings
conducted
since 2016 3rd Training (31st Dec 2017 to
8th Jan 2018)
5,000 farmers
1st Training (Jan 2016 - 8 days),
2nd Training(Sep 2016 – 4 days)
30 farmers from each cluster, master farmers; 500-
600 Agri Dept Staff and ZBNF NGOs
8,000
farmers
2. A.P programme - strong commitment of the State Govt.
• Strong support right from the Hon’ble Chief
Minister of A.P to the village level
• At the District level, the District Collectors
have taken ownership of the programme
• At the Panchayat level, the Sarpanchas
and women SHGs are supporting the
program
AP: India’s First Natural Farming State
ZBNF 2024 (2nd June 2018 declaration )
60 lakh
farmers
80 lakh
hectares
12,294 GPs
Rythu Sadhikara Samstha Department of Agriculture
Government of Andhra Pradesh
RySS Mandated to Implement ZBNF For, Of and By Farmers
MoU between RySS and SIFF
• Implemented by the Agriculture Dept. and
farmers – State level to District level and
village level
• Creation of a state and district resource
pool. A unique collaboration of Agri dept
officials with master farmers, civil society
organizations
2. A.P programme - strong commitment of the State Govt.
3. Dedicated implementation by Rythu sadhikara samstha ( Ry.S.S) – full team
F.P.O at cluster level - Farmer Institutions, men and women, take
charge of the work beyond project period
State level implementation and technical support unit – 40 – 50 strong team – from the Dept. and professionals. District level Z.B.N.F unit – 10 -15 member team Cluster teams – 4 per mandal
4. Farmer ‘heroes’ central to the programme.
• The programme believes that most effective dissemination is
“farmer to farmer”
• The best practising farmers, called Community resource
persons (C.R.P s) are engaged by the Agri dept to take
Z.B.N.F to other farmers.
• Role of Agri Dept is to identify such ‘diamonds’ in the
community and capacitate them to play a larger role in
transforming other farmers.
4. Knowledge intensive programme and not input intensive A.P Extension model:
• One Sr. C.R.P per G.P (400 ) farmers
• One Jr. C.R.P per 50 to 100 farmers
• One Lead farmer per 10 men farmers
• One Lead woman farmer per SHG ( 10 women)
4. Programme acceleration: New innovation in extension – Natural farming fellows (N.F.F)
• Campus recruitment of Young
Agriculture graduates/post
graduates and positioning
them in one of the project
villages – one per 5 villages (
1/2000 farmers)
• A 3 year fellowship – 6 months
training, followed by 2 1/2
years of being practising
Z.B.N.F farmers and part of
cluster team of C.R.Ps
4. Natural farming fellows (N.F.F) • Performance appraisal: high weightage to
their success as farmers, and the kind of
innovative models they have set up.
• they must earn more from their farming
than the honorarium they get.
• Experiment started 4 months ago. 115
N.F.Fs recruited and are under training
• Another 300 in 2018 season
Multiple roles: farmers, trainers,
scientists, and team leaders
4. Enhancing their effectiveness - video dissemination
• Video dissemination happens everyday, in one of
the villages.
• C.R.Ps trained in video dissemination and provided
with pico projectors.
• Partnership with Digital Green Foundation for regular
production of short videos on ZBNF package of
practices and success stories.
• 300 Video films, covering all topics, made with real
farmers, by local youth trained in film making
4. Strong I.C.T backbone for programme management managed by farmers
A comprehensive I.C.T support is under development:
• Farmer Database;
• e-Tracking progress on adoption of ZBNF
practices,
• Enabling traceability - certification
• Crop conditions
• Performance monitoring of functionaries
• e Marketing
• Geo-mapping
• Climate information
4. ZBNF Package of practices made accessible to all farmers
• A comprehensive ZBNF workbook published
by the Agri. Dept and Agri. University
• Farmer friendly content – 18 ZBNF primers
have been developed, simple language, and
pictorial. More will be developed
• Crop cards, with package of practices and
timelines for each crop for each farmer
• Video cassettes of Sh. Palekar’s lectures
4. Making ZBNF inputs easily available
• ZBNF input shops – one per village, run by a ZBNF
farmer
• Need based inputs – Ghanajeevamrutham, agni
asthram, brahma asthram, etc.; Sprayers; seeds of
border crops and trap crops; yellow and white sticky
traps; pheromone traps; local vegetable seeds; etc
• Custom hiring centre in each cluster
• Cattleshed lining and urine collection tanks
5. Institution building
Institution Building
•Programme works with woman SHGs and their Village Organizations (VOs)
• Forms men SHGs and Farmer Federations at Village level
• Village SHG federations and men farmer-federations come together to form Cluster Federation
•SHGs and Federations facilitate farmers Plans, support to Poorest-of-Poor and Convergence
• Cluster Federations take over ZBNF implementation
Women play an important role
•Extension focuses on women SHGs
• 50% of Active/Lead Farmers are women
•Aim: 50% Internal CRPs to be women
• Farming plans draw support from women SHGs
5. Focus on ultra poor households
• Special focus on the most vulnerable - 20% of the
farmers
• Special models - poly cropping models, 36*36
model, ANNAPURNA model, backyard poultry,
small ruminants, etc
• Special credit facility and dedicated C.R.P
knowledge and handholding support
• Aim: Rs.100,000 per annum net income for
each family
Bajra line sowing
Nutrition garden
Kitchen garden
5 layer model
6. Strategic Partnerships and collaborations
FundingSupport
GoISchemes
• RKVY
• PKVY
1
TechnicalSupport
APPI
• EstablishingTechnicalSupportUnit
• Programme Tracking,ImpactandScientificStudies
2
ImplementationSupport
CivilSociety
• ResourceNGOs
• FieldNGOs
3
F A
O
ResourceMobilizationforScalingupZBNF
MoUwithBNPParibas
EstablishingSciencebehind
ZBNF
CreatingmarketaccessforZBNF
farmers
ConnectwithotherDonors
Quantifyinghealthbenefitstocitizens
UN
EP
SIF
F
63
A.P Govt’s Vision - scaling up
to the whole state
A.P Govt plans to cover 60 lakh farmers in 12924 Gram
panchayats by 2024 and cover the entire cultivable area