National Mission On Natural Farming:
The Government of India has launched the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) as a separate and independent scheme to promote chemical-free and climate-smart agriculture.
- The National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) has been formulated by upscaling the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP) to promote natural farming across the country.
- NMNF will cover a 7.5 lakh hectare area by developing 15,000 clusters.
- The farmers willing to implement natural farming on their field will be registered as cluster members, each cluster shall comprise 50 farmers or more with 50-hectare land.
- Also, each cluster can fall into one village or spread across 2-3 nearby villages under the same gram panchayat.
- Under NMNF, farmers will receive a financial assistance of ₹15,000 per hectare per year for three years for the creation of on-farm input production infrastructure.
- However, the incentives would be provided to farmers only when they commit to natural farming and have actually taken it up.
- If a farmer defaults or does not continue with natural farming, subsequent instalments shall not be disbursed.
Natural Farming:
- Natural farming is a chemical-free farming method based on locally available resources.
- It promotes traditional indigenous practices, which give freedom to farmers from externally purchased inputs.
- The major stress of natural farming is on-farm biomass recycling with biomass mulching, use of on-farm desi cow dung-urine formulation, managing pests through diversity, on-farm botanical concoctions, and exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs directly or indirectly.
