With the motive that farmers of the state would adopt organic farming, the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, Acharya Devvrat, launched the Zero Budget Natural Farming project. The launch took place in the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
The project was launched at Chaudhary Sarvan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalay, Palampur, where Thakur lauded the efforts of the state of Sikkim for taking the lead in organic farming.
The aim of the project is to follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to increase agriculture production and the income of farmers by 2022.
The programme is made of a set of natural farming methods under which the cost of growing and harvesting plants is zero and it is a bit different from organic farming as this practice believes more in natural growth of crops without adding any fertilizers and pesticides or any other foreign elements
The programme involves almost no monetary investment and envisages the use of 'Jeevamrutha' and 'Beejamrutha' (sources of beneficial bacteria). 'Zero Budget' refers to zero net cost of production of all crops, which means that farmers don't have to buy fertilizers and pesticides to ensure the healthy growth of crops
The main of ZBNF is to eliminate the use of chemical pesticides and use biological pesticide instead and the farmers are advised to use cow dung, urine, plants, human excreta, earthworms and similar biological fertilizers for crop protection.
The practices not only protect soil from degradation but also help in retaining soil fertility and they also lower the cost of inputs of farmers and give better capacity to increase their income.
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/
