Zero Budget Natural Farming: From One Farmer’s Idea to a National Mission

Zero Budget Natural Farming began as one farmer’s idea. It is now a nationwide government mission, backed by thousands of crores in public funding.

IndEco0203

MID-1990s

Palekar’s Idea

Subhash Palekar starts developing a chemical-free method, in Maharashtra

2019-20

BPKP Launched

A PKVY sub-scheme brings natural farming to 8 states

25 NOV 2024

NMNF Approved

Cabinet approves a standalone national mission, ₹2,481 crore outlay

21 JUL 2026

Assessment Shared in Parliament

NITI Aayog and ICAR findings, presented in a written reply

₹2,481 crore committed: the National Mission on Natural Farming’s outlay through the 15th Finance Commission period (2025-26).

📑 Contents

Timeline

Mid-1990s: Agriculturist Subhash Palekar begins developing Zero Budget Natural Farming, in Maharashtra.
2019-20: The government launches BPKP, a natural-farming sub-scheme under PKVY, in 8 states.
25 November 2024: The Union Cabinet approves the National Mission on Natural Farming, as a standalone scheme.
21 July 2026: The government shares NITI Aayog and ICAR assessment findings, in a written Lok Sabha reply.

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a chemical-free farming method. It avoids all purchased synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
Agriculturist and Padma Shri awardee Subhash Palekar began developing ZBNF in the mid-1990s. He offered it as an alternative to the Green Revolution’s chemical-intensive approach.
ZBNF relies on farmer-made inputs, not purchased ones. Jeevamrutha, a fermented mix of cow dung, cow urine, jaggery, and pulse flour, boosts soil microbes.
Beejamrutha is a related mixture used to treat seeds. It protects young crops from soil-borne disease.
Government support began with BPKP (Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati). It launched in 2019-20, as a PKVY sub-scheme, in 8 states. PKVY itself promotes organic farming more broadly, with its own certification route — see IndEco0300 — National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) and Organic Farming in India.
On 25 November 2024, the Union Cabinet upgraded this into the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF), a standalone Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
NMNF has a total outlay of ₹2,481 crore, through the 15th Finance Commission period. The Centre contributes ₹1,584 crore, and States contribute ₹897 crore.
Within two years of launch, NMNF aims to reach 1 crore farmers. It targets 15,000 Gram Panchayat clusters, covering 7.5 lakh hectares.

BPKP gives farmers ₹12,200 per hectare, spread over 3 years. This covers cluster formation, training, certification, and residue testing.
NMNF plans 10,000 Bio-input Resource Centres (BRCs). These centres make ready-to-use natural-farming inputs easily available to farmers.
Around 2,000 Model Demonstration Farms will be set up. They will run at Krishi Vigyan Kendras, agricultural universities, and farmers’ own fields.
The Mission plans to train 18.75 lakh farmers directly. It will also deploy 30,000 Krishi Sakhis and community resource persons, for outreach.
Farmers get a simple certification system and common branding. This is meant to help them market their natural-farming produce.
Since 2020-21, ICAR has run the All India Network Programme on Natural Farming. It spans 20 centres in 16 states, testing 8 major cropping systems.
Palekar developed ZBNF personally in Maharashtra, but it grew into a real farmer movement in Karnataka. From around 2002, the state farmers’ association Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) worked with Palekar to spread it widely.

“Zero Budget” describes a farmer’s own out-of-pocket input costs, not government spending. NMNF itself commits ₹2,481 crore in public funds.
ZBNF developed partly as a response to the Green Revolution’s costs and side effects. See IndEco0052 — The Green Revolution and Crop Policy.
ICAR’s network trials found some natural-farming cropping systems matched, or slightly exceeded, yields from organic farming and integrated crop management. Results varied by crop system and location.
ZBNF is not the only term now in official use. Government schemes increasingly use the broader label “Natural Farming,” reserving “Zero Budget” for the original Palekar-era concept.
NMNF is now also one of 36 schemes converged under a newer, district-focused mission. See IndEco0205 — PM Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana.

On 21 July 2026, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ramnath Thakur gave a written Lok Sabha reply, on natural farming’s progress. (Source: PIB)
He cited a NITI Aayog assessment: 91.2% of surveyed farmers reported higher productivity and better soil health, after adopting natural farming. (Source: PIB)
90.1% of farmers reported lower input costs. In Himalayan-region ICAR trials, soil organic carbon rose from about 0.90% to 1.15%, over 2-3 years. (Source: PIB)
The reply confirmed an Output-Based Incentive: ₹4,000 per acre, per year, for 2 years, up to 1 acre per farmer, to support NF adoption. (Source: PIB)