Off campus online training programme on Natural farming 22nd to 26th August, 2023

Natural Farming (NF) or Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), as commonly known, is purported to be a disruptive farm practice addressing major concerns of farmers of the rising cost of production. It envisages ecological or regenerative agriculture approaches under which the application of any kind of chemicals to soil bio systems are prohibited. It relies more on soil biology than soil chemistry by encouraging multi cropping, round-the-year soil cover, the addition of formulation made up of cow dung and urine to trigger the microorganisms in the soil system. Hence ,it is imperative to understand and study the concept of Natural Farming and its effect on crop choices, crop yield, farm income as well as scalability and sustainability at farmers fields.The programme was organized online. During inauguration, Dr. M. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Director, EEI , Hyderabad and Dr N Balasubramani, Director, MANAGE attended and addressed in inauguration programme. During valediction, Dr.M.Jagan Mohan Reddy, Director, EEI said that the trainees after undergoing this training on Natural farming for 5 days have become ambassadors of natural farming which is still at a nascent stage in most of the states. He felt that extension officers should play a key role in making arrangements to supply inputs, a critical element, to farmers doorsteps. Dr N Balasubramani, Director, MANAGE appealed that many videos on successful Natural farming practices were uploaded in MANAGE website which can be used by trainees for further guidance. 79% of trainees in their feedback indicated that Traditional wisdom of farmers in promoting natural farming is the highly valuable topic of all followed by An overview on Natural farming (76%). Dr Arul, KVK, Kerala said that the training is an eye opener for him in many new topics and especially topics like Permaculture and Market mirchi are very useful for Kerala farmers G. Padmaja, AO, Andhra Pradesh felt that ITKs topic is very useful for Natural farming farmers. The no of trainees attended programme are 51 representing Dept. of State Agri. University, Animal Husbandry, Agriculture and Horticulture. The programme was coordinated by Dr.R. Vasantha, Professor. Cost of the programme was Rs.33,900.00