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
vjthallam@gmail.com
 Structure of presentation

1. Why Z.B.N.F ?

2. What is it

3. Results

4. Innovations in Z.B.N.F – the science and its

implementation

5. Future plan

6. The planetary significance

 Why Z.B.N.F ?
• Farmers welfare
– reducing costs and risks
– 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
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
6
Core Principles of Z.B.N.F

1.BEEJAMRUTHAM 2. JEEVAMRUTHAM
Microbial seed Enhance soil
coating through microbiome through
cow urine and dung an ‘inoculum’ of
based formulations. fermented cow dung,
cow urine and other
local ingredients

3. COVER CROPS 4. WAAPHASA

and MULCHING:
Ground to be kept
Fast build up of soil humus through ZBNF
covered with crops, leads to soil aeration, soil structure, and
and also crop water harnessing
residues

7
 Drought proofing in Anantpur through Pre Monsoon Navdhanya
Land preparation by Navdhanya seeds treated Mulching done by Germination
9 Natural farming ploughing and with beejamrutham and ground nut and observed within 8
Fellows undertook applying broadcasted on the field bajra husk days of sowing
pre monsoon sowing Ghanajeevamrutham

Impact of WAPHASA - Pre Kharif 2018 – Drought Year

ZBNF

Lush green Navdhanya crops Robust plant produce

with minimal irrigation Healthy root nodules Increase in soil moisture
seed treatment
with
Beejamrutham
Ghanajeevamrutam preparation
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

11
Inter-crops and
border crops
mulching
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 14
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
15
 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.
Other Principles of ZBNF

• 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.
18
Why is it called ‘Zero budget’
• 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. 20
 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. 21
 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

22
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’ 23

 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)
24
 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

25
Results: Paddy : 1,155 CCEs Blackgram: 10 CCEs
Yields are ZBNF NON-ZBNF ZBNF NON-ZBNF

increasing across 5,418 4,960 860 708

crops + 9% + 21%
State Avg Yield 5049 State Avg Yield 823

ZBNF and Non-ZBNF

Yields in kgs/ha
Guli Ragi: 6 CCEs Ragi: 17 CCEs
ZBNF NON-ZBNF ZBNF NON-ZBNF
Food Crops: 2,007 1,434 1,539 1,313
Kharif 2017
+ 40% + 17%
State Avg Yield 1131 State Avg Yield 1131

26
 Groundnut (Irrigated): 77 CCEs Groundnut (Rainfed): 65 CCEs

Results: ZBNF NON-ZBNF ZBNF NON-ZBNF

Yields are 2,555 2,034 2,286 1,680

increasing across + 26% + 36%
crops State Avg Yield 1292 State Avg Yield 1292
Cotton: 33 CCEs Chillies: 13 CCEs
ZBNF and Non-ZBNF ZBNF NON-ZBNF ZBNF NON-ZBNF

Yields in kgs/ha 1,355 1,217 6,832 5,427

Commercial crops:
+ 11% + 26%
State Avg Yield 547 State Avg Yield 4574
Kharif 2017

27
 Net income % Change
Net incomes have Crop
Costs in
ZBNF
Costs in non
ZBNF
Net income
in ZBNF
in Non in Net
ZBNF Income
increased

Paddy 30,983 43,839 60,743 40,355 51%

ZBNF and Non-ZBNF
Yields in Rs/ha
Guli Ragi 7,375 8,125 42,789 27,717 54%
Food Crops:
Kharif 2017
Ragi 6,875 7,625 31,590 25,195 25%

Blackgram 15,776 18,595 39,034 27,243 43%

 Net income
Costs in Costs in non Net income % Change in
Crop in Non
ZBNF ZBNF in ZBNF Net Income
ZBNF

Net incomes have Groundnut

increased (rainfed) 23,253 31,072 41,820 17,791 135%

Groundnut
ZBNF and Non-ZBNF (irrigated) 45,866 59,800 97,383 60,303 61%
Yields in Rs/ha

Commercial Crops: Cotton 40,368 58,658 63,522 34,036 87%

Kharif 2017
Chillies 32,883 48,215 2,41,390 1,57,337 53%
ZBNF- Poor farmers- Per farmer Average Investment, Gross and Net income

90000
83188
80000 77206

70000 65729

60000 57559

50000 46012 45948

40000 36124
31199
30000
19781
20000

10000

0
300 SC ST farmers got Net 213 Tenant farmers got 20 Single women farmers got
income of 138.03 Lakhs Netincome of 122.60 Lakhs Net income of 9.18 Lakhs
Per farmer investment Per farmer Gross income Per farmer net income
 ZBNF- Poor farmers-Debt Redemption- Average per farmer
1

0.9 0.86
0.82
0.8

0.7

0.59
0.6
0.5 0.49
0.5

0.4 0.36
0.31
0.3 0.27

0.2
0.13
0.1

0
300 SC ST Farmers,81.36 Lakhs 213 Tenant farmers, 92.57 Lakhs 20 Single Women farmers 2.61
Debt Redempted Debt Redempted Lakhs Debt Redempted
Debt Burden Amount repaid through ZBNF Suplus Outstanding Debt
 Resilience to Climate Change
Improved ability of ZBNF farms to withstand A Case of Paddy Crop in
extreme weather conditions and seasonal changes Vishakapatnam district

Non
ZBNF
ZBNF

Cyclone-damaged non-ZBNF conventional paddy plot adjacent to unaffected ZBNF paddy plot

35
Increase in Presence of
earthworm beneficiary
movement insects

Impact on Bio Diversity

Increased Increase in
number of birds and
honey bees birds nest

36 36
Anantpur pre monsoon sown
crops
 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 39
1. Key role of Sh. Subhash Palekar, father of ZBNF

5,000 farmers 8,000

3 mega
trainings farmers
conducted 1st Training (Jan 2016 - 8 days),
since 2016 2nd Training(Sep 2016 – 4 days) 3rd Training (31st Dec 2017 to
8th Jan 2018)
30 farmers from each cluster, master farmers; 500-
600 Agri Dept Staff and ZBNF NGOs
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
 60 80
12,294
lakh lakh GPs
farmers hectares

AP: India’s First Natural Farming State

ZBNF 2024
(2nd June 2018 declaration )
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
2. A.P programme - strong commitment of the
State Govt.

• 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
3. Dedicated implementation by Rythu sadhikara
samstha ( Ry.S.S) – full team
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

F.P.O at cluster level - Farmer Institutions, men and women, take

charge of the work beyond project period
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 Women play an important role

•Programme works with woman SHGs and •Extension focuses on women SHGs
their Village Organizations (VOs) • 50% of Active/Lead Farmers are
• Forms men SHGs and Farmer Federations women
at Village level •Aim: 50% Internal CRPs to be women
• Village SHG federations and men farmer- • Farming plans draw support from
federations come together to form Cluster women SHGs
Federation
•SHGs and Federations facilitate farmers
Plans, support to Poorest-of-Poor and
Convergence
• Cluster Federations take over ZBNF
implementation
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 Kitchen garden

Nutrition garden 5 layer model

 6. Strategic Partnerships and collaborations
1 2 3
Funding Support Technical Support Implementation Support
GoI Schemes APPI Civil Society
• RKVY • Establishing Technical Support • Resource NGOs
• PKVY Unit
• Field NGOs
• Programme Tracking, Impact and
Scientific Studies
FAO

UNEP
Resource Mobilization

SIFF
for Scaling up ZBNF Establishing Creating market Quantifying health
Science behind Connect with
access for ZBNF benefits to
ZBNF other Donors
MoU with BNP Paribas farmers citizens
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
of 80 lakh hectares by 2026. ( 90 % area)

Estimated Resources required for this exercise –

Rs.16247 crores, 7 years 2018 to 2026

(compare this with the expenditure on fertilizer

subsidy: Rs.5000 crore per year on A.P )

63
 60 lakh
farmers
60 lakh
farmers
35 lakh 2025-26
2023-24 Cover entire
farmers
Reach All cultivable
7.5 lakh
farmers 2021-22
Reach All GPs
Farm
Families
area in AP Achieving
163,000 2019-20
(12,924)
the Vision
farmers Reach All
Mandals
2017-18
Reached all
districts and
50% mandals

5.0 lakh farmers are reached in 2018-19

Overall Benefits of ZBNF
Eco-system
Benefits and
health benefits to
citizens

13 Rupees in
Economic
Benefits to
farmer

One rupee
spent on
converting a
farmer into
ZBNF

65
Generic lessons …
1.How to rank innovations? Which ones
should we pursue ?
2.Innovation in dissemination critical – as
important as the idea itself.

3.Role of social capital in inclusive

dissemination – institutions of poor,
citizens, community best practitioners, etc

4.Investment on the demand side

5.Social accountability 67