Nature-based farming need of the hour, says expert

Most of the problems causing the agrarian crisis in the country can be solved by reverting to nature-based farming, says expert Subhash Palekar.

A two-day workshop on nature-based farming and zero-budget farming would be conducted for farmers of the North Andhra districts at AU Ambedkar Assembly Hall here from Monday, Mr. Palekar told media here on Sunday.

The Green Revolution had increased the cost of agricultural production as farmers were dependent on outside sources for inputs, including seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, he said. With the rise in the cost of inputs, farming was increasingly becoming un-remunerative.

This was pushing farmers into debt traps and suicide, he added.

Today, the policy makers are realising that chemical farming was contributing to emission of green house gases as industrial sector.

Dependence on local seeds and other inputs is essential to make agriculture remunerative, he said.

Thousands of farmers across the country were practising the nature-based farming, and getting the benefit of increasing yields and reducing costs proving the efficacy of the system, he said.

A two-day workshop on nature-based farming and zero-budget farming will be conducted at AU Ambedkar Assembly Hal in Visakhapatnam today.