Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF): It is a natural farming technique in which farming is done without use of chemicals and without using any credits or spending any money on purchased inputs. It has been developed by Subhash Palekar. ZBNF reduces the cost of production down to zero due to utilisation of all the natural resources available in and around the crops. Farmers use earthworms, cow dung, urine, plants, human excreta and other biological fertilizers for crop protection.

Features of ZBNF

•  Inter-cropping: Under this, combination of various crops is grown simultaneously to produce greater yield on given piece of land by making use of resources that may be utilised by single crop.
•  E.g. farmer grow combination crops such as pearl millet, red gram, foxtail millet, along with chillies and tomatoes or multiple crops with groundnut as main crop.
• Use of Bio-Fertilizers and elimination of chemical fertilizers and pesticides – Farmers have a practice named Jiwamrita in which they apply fertilizers made of local cow dung and cow urine.
• Utilization of soil moisture: Farmer of droughtprone areas adopt mulching and Waaphasa to reduce the loss of natural moisture of the soil, increase soil aeration, enhance soil health and fertility and ensure favourable microclimate in the soil
• Reduce input cost of agriculture: ZBNF through reduced expenditure on expensive inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides cuts down on input cost and increases farmer income.
• Contours and bunds: to preserve rain water as it promotes maximum efficacy for different crops.
• ZBNF also includes replenishing water bodies such as farm ponds to ensure water availability during dry spells.
• Farmers also practice replenishing local species of earthworms on the farm to increase the organic matter in the soil which in-turn increases soil’s capacity to retain moisture.

 Advantages

• Besides reduced input cost, farmers practising ZBNF gets higher yields.
• Elimination of chemical pesticides and promotion of good agronomic practices.
• Promote regenerative agriculture, improve soil biodiversity and productivity.
• Ensure decent livelihoods to smallholder farmers.
• Restore ecosystem health through diverse, multi-layered cropping systems.
• Anyone who is having half an acre of land can start ZBNF.
• Using ZBNF techniques, one can convert even the most infertile land into a fertile one.
• Women’s empowerment and nutrition