The World Is Better Off Without Fossil Fuel Derived Fertilisers To Grow Food
All about zero budget natural farming revolution in India
Up until now, you have been taught how fertilizers derived from fossil fuels are necessary to grow food. Even though they harm the environment, they are required to feed the world’s growing population.
Guess what, this is completely false!
Farmers use fertilizers all over the world even though they are harmful to the health of consumers. But now something is changing. This change is coming from India. Farmers here are realizing that the cost of fossil fuel-derived fertilizers not only eats into their small margins but also ruins their soil in the longer run.
Traditional Indian ways of farming were much sustainable and environment friendly. Indian farmers are on their way back to the same old sustainable practices.
The question is why do we have fertilizers? Who benefits from the use of fertilizers? Farmers don’t benefit from them. Do consumers benefit from them? No! They get cancer, asthma, and other lethal diseases due to consuming food grown using fertilizers. It is only the mega-corporations that sell fertilizers and those involved in the supply chain from crude oil suppliers to end distributors who benefit from it.
What is Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)
ZBNF was introduced by Subhash Palekar- a famous Indian agriculturist who was awarded India’s fourth-highest civilian award- the Padma Shri in 2016. It has been doubling the farmers’ incomes and hence has been increasingly gaining momentum with two of India’s states Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh leading this revolution. The current Indian government sees this model as the solution to the agricultural crisis in India.
It is a method of chemical-free agriculture drawing from traditional Indian practices before the so-called “Green Revolution” in India desertified the agricultural land due to mono-cropping and the use of fertilizers.
In ZBNF, the soil gets its nutrition from inter-cropping and locally available resources like cow’s dung. Instead of pesticides, organic things like neem extract are used to keep insects at bay. It is based on the premise that soil doesn’t need fertilizers from outside if you follow the natural way of farming and if you can replicate the ecosystem like that of a forest, you will get the healthiest crops.
It is a myth that this method of farming decreases farm output. On the contrary, multi-cropping which is a part of this model, not only increases the output but also decreases the requirement of irrigation.
As per Subhash Palekar, forests have rich growth even though no one is spraying fertilizers there. All that plants need to grow is available in nature. The humus that mulching creates enriches the soil and allows the growth of micro-organisms, including earthworms.
The excreta of an earthworm contains seven times more nitrogen than normal soil? It also contains nine times the phosphate and 11 times the potassium. Also, inter-cropping ensures that an adequate quantity of nitrogen is fixed in the soil. Why would you need fertilizers? It also deteriorates the soil in the longer run.
The cow dung of local cows is used in natural farming that resulting in soil gaining the nutrition it lost due to mono-cropping with fertilizers. When Subash Palekar researched the dung and urine of local cow varieties, bullocks, and western breeds, the microbial count in local breed cow dung was as high as 300 crores in one gram compared to about 70 lakh in the case of a Jersey cow variety, which also had significant pathogen bacteria.
India’ Andhra Pradesh is Leading The Way in ZBNF
One of the Indian states- Andhra Pradesh has worked extensively on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF). The Government of Andhra Pradesh introduced ZBNF back in 2016 as an alternative to chemical-based and capital intensive agriculture with the objective of making agriculture economically viable and livelihoods of farmers profitable, through cost reduction and sustainable agricultural practices that are climate-resilient.
ZBNF reduced the cost of cultivation, enhance soil fertility, enhance yields, reduce risks, and protect from uncertainties of climate change. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has launched a scale-out plan to transition 6 million farms/farmers to 100% chemical-free agriculture by 2024.
What is Next?
The past century has been dominated by the industrial revolution and consumerism. Going forward, the world is changing for the better. It is moving towards a more sustainable way of living. We, humans, have realized that anything that harms the environment harms us.
The fertilizers that ruin the soil also ruin our health. The plastic that ruins the ocean first ruins our health. We do not need to wait for a catastrophic event to turn our attention to the environment.
Also, the small initiatives matter. If you take a piece of land and practice natural farming, you would be doing something worthwhile not only for yourself but also for the environment.
We keep running after jobs, companies, and bigger cities but have you ever wondered- how would it be taking care of nature, having natural, chemical-free food to eat, making natural products, and selling to locals.
There are multiple ways you can live a sustainable life while making a living. Having said that, I myself am teaching people yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda to help them live a healthy life. Soon, I am going to invest in natural farming myself. There is a marketing agency I own that helps sustainable businesses grow. All this has been more satisfying than the big fat job I left this year.
Thank you for reading.
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