Zero Budget Natural Farming in India – from inception to institutionalization

ABSTRACT

This paper delineates the growth of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in India. From its origins as a peasant-led social movement in the state of Karnataka, to becoming institutionalized in a state program in Andhra Pradesh, ZBNF is attaining scale and reaching more and more peasant families. We look at some of the key factors that have triggered ZBNFs growth, as well as highlight some of the challenges and contradictions that may arise in the institutionalization process.

KEYWORDS:

• Agroecology
• KRRS
• Scaling-up agroecology
• Subhash Palekar
• Zero Budget Natural Farming

Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to the members of the Zero Budget Natural Farming Movement, several activists of India’s sustainable agriculture movement, and staff and farmers connected to Andhra Pradesh governments ZBNF policy. We also thank AnneSophie Poiset for her support with some sections of an earlier unpublished draft of the paper, as well as our reviewers for their valuable comments.

Notes

1. It should be said, however, that in our interviews with other sustainable agriculture activists in India, many noted that they have found it difficult to align with the ZBNF movement because of Palekar’s intolerance for other sustainable agriculture, practices especially ‘organic’ farming which he calls an extension of the corporate food regime Palekar, S. n d. However, he has grouped even small-scale agroecological farmers, who may identify with the organic label with industry-led organic, and thus rejects organic. This has offended many organic farming activists and prevented alliances with other movements. However, we note that farmers have an approach that is more pragmatic than organic rules, choosing the practices that work best for them.

2. Fieldwork for this paper was conducted from 2012–2015 in Karnataka and more recently in 2017 and 2018 in Andhra Pradesh.

3. Sanskrit for abundant.

4. Palekar training camp, Guntur 2018.

5. NADEP is a type of composting method created by an Indian farmer. It speeds up the composting process and provides much larger quantities of compost as compared to normal composting systems.

6. Interview with ZBNF farmer, Krishnappa.

7. Interviews with ZBNF leaders.

8. Mathas are Hindu monastic institutions. Mostly found in a few states like Karnataka, mathas are politically powerful religious institutions and an integral part of the social fabric. They have a long history of carrying out social programs.

9. No research has been conducted on ZBNFs adoption in these countries so far.

10. Interview with member of sustainable agriculture movement in India.

11. The ZBNF program has been linked up with other national programs targeting women and POP – such as the government’s Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana- a program targeting women farmers from poor households.

12. A farmers’ collective under the Companies Act of India- a producer company is a hybrid between a private limited company and a cooperative society.