Curtains were drawn on the nine-day training programme of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) held at the Bible Mission grounds opposite Acharya Nagarjuna University.
At a time when the farming sector is in crisis and the farmer is burdened with low yields and rise in investments, the Andhra Pradesh government has begun promoting natural farming.
Natural farming proponent Subhash Palekar has led the training programmes holding classes on soils, mulching practices and use of natural nutrients to enrich the soils.
T.Vijay Kumar, advisor, Agriculture and Cooperation Department and co-vice chairman, Rythu Sadhikara Samstha’s Zero Budget Natural Farming division, said that ZBNF could revolutionise farming in a big way.
Mr. Palekar spoke on the cultivation of paddy and ragi in wet lands and dry lands. Stating that paddy belongs to the grass family which can grow throughout our country, he said that paddy is from C4 (Carbon 4) family which utilises the energy created through photosynthesis for development of plant and pod creation. He explained that the paddy has a potential of giving yield up to 120 quintals per acre.
“But to get the yield, there should be 2.5% of carbon in the soil which is only 0.2% at present, the nitrogen and oxygen ratio should be 10:1 and the sunlight should be 10,000-12,000 foot candles (FC),’’ he said.
He said that due to application of chemical fertilizers and insecticides, soil carbon levels have been coming down.
Yield matters
Stating that all hybrid seed varieties are not the high yielding varieties (HYV), he said that he has taken HYV paddy seed of Sahyadri and could get a yield of 24 quintals, but the milling percentage is 50 (12 quintals), and the total income received is ₹22,000.
When he tested with improved variety paddy seeds of Jaya, the yield was 18 quintals wherein the milling percentage was 60% which fetched ₹36,000 due to its higher price in the market.
The local Basmati paddy variety yielded 12 quintals but it fetched an amount of ₹6,000-12,000 per quintal and a total of ₹54,000-1.08 lakh. “Paddy can be grown in dry lands if cultivated under ZBNF methods by taking intercrops with pulses in paddy. As paddy belongs to grass family monopod plant, it can withstand both drought and heavy rain conditions,’’ he said.
