-The Indian Express Addressing the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned that India was "focusing on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)". In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had spoken of the need to “go back to basics”, and to “replicate this innovative model (that) can help in doubling our farmers’ income”. The National Academy of...
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Top farm scientists body rejects zero budget natural farming -Harish Damodaran and Parthasarathi Biswas
-The Indian Express This comes even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the 14th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification on Monday, mentioned that “we are focusing on ZBNF”. India’s premier academic body of agricultural scientists has hit out at Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), terming it as an “unproven” technology bringing no incremental value gain to either farmers or consumers. “The government should not needlessly invest capital...
More »Agri GDP growth falls: Doubling farmers' income in next 3 years looks a tough task -Rajalakshmi Nirmal
-The Hindu Business Line While production has dropped, it has not been accompanied by a commensurate increase in price Last week, while the CSO released the Q1 GDP numbers, it also showed numbers for agriculture, forestry and fishing as a segment. For the June quarter, this segment’s growth in real terms was 2 per cent, against 5.1 per cent in the same quarter of the previous year. Agri GDP growth has been sliding...
More »Agri families borrow more, eat less to cope with kin's suicide: study -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com * Average income of farm suicide families was just Rs.3,523 per month in 2016-17, below Rs.4,561 estimated by NSSO: study * The study found that 92% of farm suicide families were not enrolled under the centre’s flagship crop insurance scheme NEW DELHI: Agricultural households are trying to cope with the suicide of an earning member of the family by borrowing more, skimping on food and even taking recourse to bonded labour, a...
More »Zero Budget Natural Farming: Another Case of 'Raw Wisdom' Over Science? -Kabir Agarwal
-TheWire.in The Centre says the method will improve crop productivity and reduce input costs, but it remains unclear which scientific studies – if any – these conclusions are derived from. New Delhi: During her budget speech in July, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman responded to widespread farmers’ distress by saying that they would be encouraged to adopt a ‘zero budget’ technique that would take India’s agriculture sector ‘back to basics’. Zero-budget natural farming...
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