Context:

Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the launch of the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF).

National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF)

• The aim is to promote natural farming in mission mode across the country, with a focus on districts that have high fertilizer consumption.
• As a standalone Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare.
• It is an improvement of the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhti (BPKP), which was a sub-scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2020-21 for the promotion of traditional indigenous practices including Natural Farming (NF).
• The mission is designed to support farmers in reducing the input cost of cultivation and dependency on externally purchased inputs while rejuvenating soil health, fertility & quality and building resilience to climate risks like waterlogging, flood, drought, etc.

• The scheme has a total outlay of Rs.2481 crore (Government of India share – Rs.1584 crore and State share – Rs.897 crore) till the 15th Finance Commission (2025-26).
• The scheme will be implemented in 15,000 clusters in Gram Panchayats, in the next two years.
• Under the mission around 2000 Natural Farming Model Demonstration Farms shall be established at Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Agricultural Universities (AUs) and farmers’ fields, and shall be supported by experienced and trained Farmer Master Trainers.
• The willing farmers will be trained in Model Demonstration Farms.
• Farmers will be provided with an easy simple certification system and dedicated common branding to provide access to market their natural farming produce. 
• Real time geo-tagged & referenced monitoring of NMNF implementation shall be done through an online portal.

About Natural Farming

• The Agriculture Ministry defines natural farming as a chemical free farming system that only uses inputs produced using livestock and plant resources.
• Bio-inputs used in Natural Farming are prepared on-farm. 
• Optimum utilization of locally available raw materials such as cow dung, cow urine, bioresources etc.
• It has many indigenous forms in India, with the most popular being Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF).

Benefits of Natural Farming

• Improve Yield Farmers: It reported similar yields to those following conventional farming. In several cases, higher yields per harvest were also reported.

• Ensures Better Health: As Natural Farming does not use any synthetic chemicals, health risks and hazards are eliminated. The food has higher nutrition density and therefore offers better health benefits.

• Environment Conservation: It ensures better soil biology, improved agro-biodiversity and more judicious usage of water with much smaller carbon and nitrogen footprints.
• Increased Farmer's Income: It aims to make farming viable and aspirational by increasing the net incomes of farmers on account of cost reduction, reduced risks, similar yields, and incomes from intercropping.