Zero Budget Farming

Just a cow can help you raise crop in 30 acres, without any external inputs, extra water or even electricity!That is the concept of zero budget farming, says Subash Palekar, Founder of the Zero Budget Farming Movement. He is in the city to address a workshop on zero budget farming that begins on Saturday.Only zero budget farming, which was being followed by nearly 24 lakh farmers in various states, can ensure increased food production, he told reporters in Coimbatore on Friday.

Cow can help you raise crop in 30 acres

“Chemical and organic farming methods are not helping us produce as much as we need. With just 12 crore hectare cultivable land available in the country, we cannot afford to lose more land to urbanisation. Government is only promoting organic farming for producing food items meant for export. It is only aiding in increasing the world economy and not the Indian economy,” Mr. Palekar said.

Hitting out at officials who claimed that India was self-sufficient, he said that it was a farce. Quoting statistics of the last year he claimed that India was still in a position to import food. “Ten kg of cow dung is required for an acre a month. A ‘desi’ cow can give 11 kg of dung a day. Hence 30 acres can be cultivated. Almost any plant needs 98.5 per cent carbon dioxide to grow. Solar energy and water is needed to cultivate it. Only the remaining is needed from the soil. It is false when people say that manure is the basic food material for a crop,” he said.

He quoted many success stories of farmers who had adopted the zero budget farming technique. Since 1988 he has been able to garner the support of farmers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chattisgarh, West Bengal and Orissa. He has a considerable following in Tamil Nadu too. “We submitted a proposal of using the technique to the Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday. We hope they will accept it,” he said.

Mr. Plaekar said agricultural universities were propagating wrong practices like organic farming, vermin-composting and the like. “All these techniques are dangerous and against Nature.” “Farmers are not the only ones who are committing suicide. There are so many others committing suicide by consuming the food produce that comes out of wrong farming practices,” he added.

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