Adoption of Zero Budget Natural Farming: An Economic Feasibility Study in Trichy District of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) was introduced by Subash Palekar, an Indian agriculturist refers to production of crops without using any external inputs. It creates the complementary and supplementary relationship among the various agricultural enterprises. With this background, a study to analyse the feasibility of ZBNF by eliciting farmer’s opinion regarding merits and demerits in the adoption was carried out. The study was conducted in Trichy district by collecting primary data using interview method. Tools like Garret ranking was used to rank the merits and demerits of ZBNF based on farmer’s opinion and cost of cultivation of paddy crop by comparing ZBNF and conventional farming (CF) was also done. Most of the farmers opined that bio-fertilizer use instead of chemical fertilizer as positive factor with a mean score of 66.93 and low yield rates as the major drawback of ZBNF with a mean score of 54.80. All the costs were high in CF compared with ZBNF. In terms of returns, net income was high in ZBNF (Rs. 14049.5) compared with CF (Rs. 11027.9). Hence, ZBNF is more feasible compared with CF. It helps to reduce the usage of chemical and sustain the soil fertility. It is one of the successful pathways to attain sustainability in agriculture.