Union Budget 2023: There can be a big announcement in the Union Budget 2023 to promote natural farming and connect farmers with it. These days, there is a lot of focus of the central and state governments on natural farming. Is there going to be anything special for the farmers doing natural farming in the budget? On this question, Dr. Vandana Dwivedi, Advisor for Natural Farming in the Ministry of Agriculture told in a conversation with ABP News that there will be something special for natural farming in the budget 2023-23. For some time, natural farming is emerging as a zero budget i.e. no cost farming. Farmers are being motivated to join it.
There is also a possibility of better financial and technical help to the farmers, which can be fulfilled by this budget. The main focus will be on how farmers of every category can adopt natural farming. For this, it is also expected to ensure the availability of inputs used in natural farming. There may be a special announcement in this budget especially to connect small farmers with natural farming.
Why was the concept of natural farming introduced?
Chemical farming played an important role in bringing Green Revolution in the country. This helped a lot in increasing agricultural production from 50 million tonnes to 130 million tonnes, but chemical farming also brought many problems. Its bad effect has been seen on the environment. Our lands are becoming barren. The lowering of ground water level is also a major reason.
At that time, the amount of organic carbon in India’s soil was very good, which could be sustained by the balanced use of chemicals, but the indiscriminate use of chemicals has increased pollution as well as the cost of farming. Now it has become difficult to get the right production without using fertilizers on the land.
Chemical farming was started for the importance of science, but now the use of chemicals has increased beyond the line, which is having a bad effect on the people who consume chemical products along with farming. Such serious diseases are being born, whose identification and treatment are becoming difficult.
If you understand in simple language, chemical fertilizers and pesticides have put the health of the public as well as the future of agriculture in danger. To solve this problem, the concept of natural farming was brought among the farmers. This model takes care of the health of the soil as well as the health of the people.
Farming with natural methods instead of chemicals will result in better crop production, health of the soil will be maintained, future of agriculture will be secured, farmers will get good income from natural products, people will also get healthy and healthy body.
How is natural farming different from organic farming?
The Government of India has promoted organic farming for the last several years. This has yielded good results. The soil structure of the farm has improved, environmental pollution has reduced, the demand for organic products has increased in the country and abroad, due to which the farmers have also got good income.
The model of organic farming is also very successful, but to get organic production, many inputs like organic fertilizers, organic fertilizers, organic pesticides, etc. have to be purchased from outside in the fields. Sometimes all these things are not cheap, due to which the cost of farming increases.
In a conversation with ABP News, Dr. Vandana Dwivedi, Advisor for Natural Farming in the Ministry of Agriculture, told that farmers are earning well even from organic farming, certified products are being exported abroad. People’s faith in organic products has increased even during the Corona epidemic.
The cost of organic farming is much less than chemical farming, but it is not so less that it can get the right profit. Contrary to this, in natural farming no input has to be bought from outside. This is completely cow based farming.
It is a boon for the farmers who rear cows, because manure, fertilizers, insecticides, etc. are prepared with the help of some medicinal trees along with cow dung, cow urine, which can be prepared by the farmers themselves. Its cost is minimum, it is also very beneficial in terms of environment and health.
Many researches have revealed that by doing natural farming, the number of organisms in the soil increases and the level of ground water also improves. In this way the water consumption for irrigation is not much. Dr. Vandana Dwivedi told that positive results come out after doing natural farming for many years.
In this, the focus is on planting the right crop at the right time, for which if indigenous seeds are used, the cost of cultivation can be reduced and productivity can be increased. Today, positive changes have been observed in the biodiversity of the areas which are being covered by natural farming. In this, the farmers themselves are not able to come in contact with chemicals, so their health also remains better.
What is the government doing to promote it?
The Central Government has approved the National Mission on Natural Farming as a separate scheme to promote natural farming, which is likely to be implemented officially with a good budget this year.
In response to a question, Dr. Vandana Dwivedi said that under the National Natural Farming Mission, there is a plan to form 15,000 clusters of farmers in 7.5 lakh hectares. He told that the concept of natural farming is traditional, but to do something new in this, training will be given to champion farmers i.e. progressive-successful farmers, who will make other farmers aware about natural farming and train them in every way. Payment will also be given to the farmers who give training in natural farming.
425 Krishi Vigyan Kendras across the country have been selected for natural farming, which will motivate farmers to do natural farming along with their land. For this, 8,500 demonstration trials will be done every year. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, so far 68,000 farmers have been trained in natural farming. There is also a State Mission for Natural Farming in many states.
Ganga guards have been selected under the Namami Gange Mission, who are making military products and selling them online. In Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand, natural farming is being specially promoted on about 1.5 lakh hectares of land on the banks of river Ganges. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, today about 16.78 lakh farmers of 16 states have automatically joined it realizing the importance of natural farming.
Farmers will get incentive
After providing financial and technical help to the farmers adopting organic farming, now a new plan of the government is ready to promote natural farming. In a conversation with ABP News, Dr. Vandana Dwivedi, Natural Farming Advisor in the Ministry of Agriculture, told that selected farmers of the National Mission for Organic Farming will be given a grant at the rate of Rs 5,000 per hectare for three years. Soon, the government is also going to form 500 farmer producer organizations to make certification, branding, value addition and marketing easier for the products produced from natural farming. With this, farmers will not only get the right price for their natural produce, the interest of customers in the market will also increase in natural products.
Read this also:- Natural-organic farmers also have many expectations from the budget, want such a model for chemical free production
