To reduce excessive use of chemical fertilisers and boost soil health, the government is aiming to expand the area under natural farming and increase the number of farmers adopting these practices. This will be done through formation of clusters and by providing financial incentives and product certification under a national mission.
Over 0.8 million small-holder farmers have enrolled to initiate natural farming in a portion of their land against a target of 1.8 million, an agriculture ministry official said. .
Farmers are being provided financial assistance upto Rs 4000 per acre per annum under the national mission on natural farming launched last year.
“We are encouraging farmers to practice natural farming in just one acre of land before expanding it,” an official told FE. The aim is to enrol 10 million farmers over the next couple of years under natural farming out of a total 140 million farmers in the country.
Over 14,500 clusters of 50 hectare area each has been formed for demonstration of natural farming practices across states which focuses on as a chemical free farming which involves local livestock integrated natural farming methods, diversified crop systems, mulching and minimum tillage.
Over 0.35 million farmers have enrolled for generation of soil health cards.
The progress of adoption of natural farming practices is being monitored on a real time basis using GIS technology. In addition, 30,000 community resource persons and 10,000 bio-input resource centers are being set up under the mission.
Officials said at present the focus of the mission is on a 5 km corridor along the river Ganga, districts on the bank of major rivers, districts with high and low fertiliser input sales and tribal areas.
In November, 2024, a dedicated central scheme national mission to promote natural farming with a budget outlay of Rs 2,481 crore was launched. For FY26, a budget of Rs 883 crore has been approved.
The fund for the scheme will have a share of Rs.1584 crore and states’ contribution would be Rs 897 crore till the end of 15th Finance Commission (2025-26).
Currently, farmers in several states including Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are practicing natural farming. While the action plans of 33 states and UTs have been approved.
Under the mission, a certification system for those farms using natural farming techniques has been launched. The participatory guarantee system (PGS)-India certification, as recognised by under the food safety and standards (organic foods) regulation is naturally grown chemical free produce.
Under the natural farming system, farmers are encouraged to practice a set of farm practices including multi cropping, mulching, minimum or no tillage and maintaining soil cover round to year to for reducing incidence of pests and diseases, reduce soil erosion and retain soil erosion, reduction in wee growth and increase in water retention.
“Although shifting from chemical farming to natural farming method initially leads to drop in output but it gradually boosts the soil health and reduce cost of production,” Sanjay Yadav, a farmer from Sikar district, Rajasthan, who has been cultivating vegetables, fruits and wheat using natural farming technique since last decade, told FE.
The mission is aimed to support farmers to reduce input cost of cultivation and dependency to externally purchased inputs while building healthy soil, promote biodiversity and encourage diverse cropping systems suitable to local agroecology.
According to industry estimates, due to sale of highly subsidised chemical fertilizers, sale of these soil nutrients has increased from 13 kg per hectare in 1970 to 138.1 kg hectare in 2022-23.
Official estimates indicate, soil organic carbon content has reduced from 1% to 0.3% in the last 70years while there are several reports of excessive use of chemical fertilizers leading to contamination of agricultural produce.
The fertiliser subsidy for 2025-26 is projected at Rs 1.67 lakh crore.