New Delhi : Improving farm income has been a stated objective of the Narendra Modi government. To take this further, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a proposal of zero budget farming, which she said is like “going back to basics.”

She said zero budget farming is already being practiced in some states of the country. Sitharaman said emphasis on zero budget farming will help double the farming income in days to come.

This is technically known as Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations calls it. Zero budget farming is a set of farming methods that involve zero credit for agriculture and no use of chemical fertilisers.

This evolved as a farming movement in Karnataka as a result of collaboration between agriculturist Subhash Palekar and state farmers association Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS). As it attained considerable success in Karnataka, the model was replicated in many other states, particularly in South India.

The zero budget farming aims at pulling the farmers out of the debt trap that they found themselves in with the liberalisation of Indian economy. This is also an attempt to make small scale farming a viable vocation.

In many states, farmers are in huge debt due to rising agriculture cost on the account of privatised seeds, farm inputs and inaccessible markets. The high-interest rates for credit or loans that the farmers take from the easiest available lender made farming unviable.

Zero budget farming model promises to cut down farming expenditure drastically and ends dependence on loans. It also reduces dependence on purchased inputs as it encourages use of own seeds and locally available natural fertilizers. Farming is done in sync with the nature not through chemical fertilisers.