Natural farming in Andhra yielded more produce than chemical methods, shows study

Source: www.downtoeart...
Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) has led to significantly higher crop yield compared to organic or conventional farming in Andhra Pradesh, according to a new study The southern state has been pushing for 100% chemical-free agriculture under the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme since 2016.
APCNF has worked with 6.3 Lakh farmers of the state for the last 6 years. The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Reading and Rythu Sadikara Samstha, a non-profit set up by the government in 2014.
Conventional farming involves the use of synthetic pesticides/fertilisers and is the mainstream method of farming in India. Organic treatment does not use any synthetic fertilisers but uses purchased organic inputs, such as farmyard manure and vermicompost. ZBNF on the other hand, involves not using any synthetic pesticides or fertilisers and uses homemade inputs comprising desi cow dung and urine with mulch. Most popular inputs include jeevamrutha and bijamrita.
Researchers studying the impact of Andhra Pradesh’s natural farming program, carried out controlled field experiments in 28 farms across 6 districts over three cropping seasons - from June 2019-2020. During this time, they made comparisons between the three farming treatments, in terms of yield, soil pH, temperature, moisture content, nutrient content and earthworm abundance. The results revealed that ZBNF yield was significantly higher than both conventional and organic treatments in 3 districts of Prakasam, Nellore and Kadapa. The ZBNF yield was significantly higher than the conventional treatment in the Krishna district and significantly higher than the organic treatment in the Anantapur district. Moreover, It was also observed that the yield for the conventional treatment reduced from the first to the third season , whereas the organic and ZBNF mean yield increased slightly through all three seasons.
The researchers studied different crops like groundnuts and tomatoes. The yield of groundnut kernels was around 30-40% higher in the ZBNF treatment. This is an important finding with groundnut being a crucial oilseed crop in India. It covers 537,000 hectares (ha) in Andhra Pradesh alone. Apart from the higher yield, another significant finding of the study was regarding nutrient availability. The results showed that nutrient availability remained unaffected in zero budget natural farming. Now this is a significant finding because there have been arguments that synthetic fertilisers increase nutrient concentrations, in comparison to organic or natural farming. Intensive use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers comes with a number of associated risks to farmers’ finances, human health, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. It has been estimated earlier that if ZBNF covered 25% of the total crop area in Andhra Pradesh, $70 million would be saved in fertiliser subsidies every year.
Now, this one of the most extensive on-ground assessment proves that ZBNF is making sure the yields are increased while improving the soil health as well, giving a significant push to Andra’s Natural farming movement.