Natural Farming

SWOT analysis of NF

Strengths

Providing wonderful solutions to the challenges of present agriculture in the state
Potential to contribute to the global effort to overcome the challenges of climate change
Improving profitability in agriculture
Improving farmers’ health
Reducing farmers’ stress

Opportunities

Weakness

Threats

The programme is going against the powerful mainstream industries, institutions and policies

Objectives of NF

Ensuring food security and producing more with less resources.
For building the resilience of smallholder farmers for creating a food-secure future.
NF is the right solution to fight climate change and create resilient food systems.
Fighting drought is one of the main objectives of NF.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN advocates environmentally-friendly farming methods that can take us to a more sustainable future.
Importance for chemical free food consumption is growing rapidly.
Chemical farming has made food a poison and also has reduced the yield by making lands barren.
Farmers’ welfare and sustainable practices are vital for a sustainable and productive economy.
NF constitutes an effective strategy for achieving SDGs targets.

Features of NF

It is a farming practice that believes in natural growth of crops without adding any chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

The four wheels of NF are Bijamrut, Jivamrut, Mulching and Waaphasa.
Bijamrut is a natural way of seed treatment using local cow urine and cow dung.
Jvamrut is made using water, local cow dung, local cow urine, jaggery, dal flour and soil.
Waaphasa is the aeration in the soil.
NF is different from organic farming.
Intercropping is an important feature of NF.
Practicing composting on the farm itself, so that soil organic matter increases.

Storing water in the farm ponds for use in adverse conditions.
Insects and pests are managed using neem leaves, neem pulp and green chillies.
Establishing farmers’ federations and self-help groups, and placing farmers at the forefront of knowledge creation and dissemination.

Advantages

Besides reduced input cost, farmers practicing NF 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 NF.
Using NF techniques, one can convert even the most infertile land into a fertile one.
Women’s empowerment and nutrition.

Basic Pillars of NF

Sr.No.	Methods	Preparation	Benefits
1	Jivamrita/ Jeevamrutha	It is composed of the cow-dung (20 kg), urine (5-10 l), jaggery (2.0 kg) and dicot flour (2 kg), 200lit water and is applied to the crops with each Irrigation cycle OR directly to the crops.	It provides nutrients, but most importantly, acts as a catalytic agent that promotes the activity of microorganisms in the soil, as well as increases earthworm activity. Jeevamrutha also helps to prevent fungal and bacterial plant diseases. that Jeevamrutha is only needed for the first 3 years of the transition, after which thesystem becomes self-sustaining.
2	Bijamrita	It is basically made up of water (20l), cow dung (5kg), urine (5l), lime (50gm) and just a handful of soil.	Bijamrita is a seed treatment, equipped in protecting young roots from fungus as well as from soil-borne and seed-borne diseases.
3	Acchadana Mulching	It could be done by soil mulch, straw mulch or live mulch	It conserves soil moisture, by reducing evaporation.
4	Whapasa– moisture	The irrigation should be reduced and irrigation should be practiced only at noon ,inalternatefurrows	Palekar challenges the idea that plant roots need a lot of water, in-fact, what roots need is water vapour, and therefore, Whapasa is the condition where there exist both air molecules and water molecules present in the soil.