Context: Prime Minister will address a National Summit on Agro and Food Processing.At this summit, the Prime Minister will spread basic knowledge about Zero-Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF).
About Zero-Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)

• ZBNF is a technique of farming developed by Padma awardee Subhash Palekar of Maharashtra.
• It aims to help farmers bring down input costs by shifting away from agricultural chemicals and relying instead on natural inputs, mainly an admixture of urine and dung of native Indian cows.
• At the heart of ZBNF is the idea that nearly 98% of nutrients needed by crops are CO2, nitrogen, water and sun which are available naturally and free of cost. The remaining nutrients need to be absorbed from the soil.
• Hence, they are converted from non-available to available form through the action of microorganisms and an admixture of cow dung and urine.
• However, the technique has not been scientifically validated and there is no evidence to show if it yields added any value for farmers.

Benefits of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)

• As both a social and environmental programme, it aims to ensure that farming – particularly smallholder farming – is economically viable by enhancing farm biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• It reduces farmers’ costs through eliminating external inputs and using in-situ resources to rejuvenate soils, whilst simultaneously increasing incomes, and restoring ecosystem health through diverse, multi-layered cropping systems.
• Cow dung from local cows has proven to be a miraculous cure to revive the fertility and nutrient value of soil. One gram of cow dung is believed to have anywhere between 300 to 500 crore beneficial micro-organisms. These micro-organisms decompose the dried biomass on the soil and convert it into ready-to-use nutrients for plants.
• Zero budget natural farming requires only 10 per cent water and 10 per cent electricity than what is required under chemical and organic farming. ZBNF may improve the potential of crops to adapt to and be produced for evolving climatic conditions.

Four wheels of ZBNF to be implemented in practically
The “four wheels” of ZBNF are ‘Jiwamrita’, ‘Bijamrita’, ‘Mulching’ and ‘Waaphasa’, says Palekar, a Padma Shri awardee.

• Jiwamritais a fermented mixture of cow dung and urine (of desi breeds), jaggery, pulses flour, water and soil from the farm bund. This isn’t a fertiliser, but just a source of some 500 crore micro-organisms that can convert all the necessary “non-available” nutrients into “available” form.
• Bijamritais a mix of desi cow dung and urine, water, bund soil and lime that is used as a seed treatment solution prior to sowing.
• Mulching, or covering the plants with a layer of dried straw or fallen leaves, is meant to conserve soil moisture and keep the temperature around the roots at 25-32 degrees Celsius, which allows the microorganisms to do their job.
• Waaphasa, or providing water to maintain the required moisture-air balance, also achieves the same objective.

Criticism to the ZBNF claims

• ZBNF is not zero budget methodology of farming. There are several costs such as cows maintenance cost, paid up cost for electricity and pumps, labour etc.
• Lack of independent studies: There are no independent studies to validate the claims that ZBNF plots have a higher yield than non-ZBNF plots. 
• Indian soils are poor in organic matter and several other micronutrients varying as per the type of soil. ZBNF insists on one blanket solution for all the problems of Indian soils. This cannot solve region specific soil problems.
• As per Subhash Palekar, 98.5% of the nutrients that plants need are obtained from air, water and sunlight and only 1.5% is from the soil. Thus, ZBNF takes an irrational position on the nutrient requirements of plants. 
• Creates cultural chauvinism: The spiritual nature of agriculture promoted by ZBNF is baseless and just creates cultural chauvinism.

Road Ahead
There is a host of structural marketing issues which needs to be addressed first before aiming to achieve the ambitious goal of ZBNF. For example:

• Strengthening of agricultural market infrastructure.
• Extending the procurement mechanism to all foodgrain and non-foodgrain crops to all States.
• Implementation of price deficiency payment system for selected crops.
• Fixing minimum support prices (MSP) in consonance with the cost of cultivation.
• Abolishing minimum export price for agricultural commodities.
• Enacting legislation on ‘right to sell at MSP’ needs immediate attention.
• MGNREGS must also be linked with farm work in order to reduce the cost of cultivation which has escalated at a faster pace over the past few years.