VIJAYAWADA: Scaling up Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in all six million farm families in the state could help Andhra Pradesh make significant progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to an independent study released by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and UN environment’s executive director Erik Solheim, on Thursday, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The study published by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) maps the potential social, economic, and environmental impacts of the Government of Andhra Pradesh’s (GoAP) ZBNF programme targets each of the SDGs.
Since 2015, ZBNF has been rolled out to 1,38,000 farmers across all 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh, bringing almost 1,50,000 acres of agricultural land under the ZBNF model of agriculture.
The ZBNF programme will be scaled across the state with the support of the Sustainable India Finance Facility (SIFF), a collaborative initiative of UN Environment, World Agro-forestry Centre, and BNP Paribas. CEEW is a research partner of SIFF.
By adopting natural farming practices, ZBNF farmers in Andhra Pradesh have eliminated the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
Instead they use low-cost locally-sourced natural concoctions, inoculums and decoctions made from cow dung, cow’s urine, jaggery, lilac, green chillies, and many other such natural ingredients.
“The success of Andhra Pradesh’s Zero Budget Natural farming experiment will not only help India to meet its SDGs but will also inspire and transform the lives of millions of farmers across the de-veloping world,” Mr Naidu said. Hence, the GoAP has announced 2018 as the ‘Natural Farming Year’.
