© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Building on the Modi government’s push for organic, zero-budget natural farming, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said in her budget speech that the agriculture universities in the country will be encouraged to include these areas in their syllabus.
The Union government has started pushing the concept of zero-budget natural farming as an initiative that will work towards making the vocation of farming more sustainable as well as improving the income of the farmers by reducing costs of inputs, in addition to other areas such as better market access and improved product returns to the farmers.
On December 16 2021, while addressing the National Summit on Agro and Food Processing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised on natural farming in his speech as a ‘promising tool’ in improving the situation of the farmers.
Following this, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture, issued a circular to all the central and state universities to take initiatives to promote natural farming.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said: “States will be encouraged to revise the syllabus of agricultural universities to meet the needs of natural, zero-budget and organic farming, modern-day agriculture, value addition and management.”
Dr Harihar Kausadikar, director (education), Maharashtra Council of Agriculture Education and Research (MCAER), said that the curriculum of agriculture universities in Maharashtra is revised every 10 years. The last revision happened in 2009-10 and the process of revising the syllabus is underway. The new syllabus may be effective from the upcoming academic year scheduled to begin in July–August 2022.
“As per the ICAR directives issued in December 2021, the syllabus for postgraduate programmes in agricultural universities must include areas of organic farming, zero-budget farming, and natural farming. The universities are also encouraged to start independent courses on the subject (for instance, MSc organic farming). The new syllabus will become effective from the upcoming academic year for all four agricultural universities in Maharashtra,” said Dr Kausadikar.
According to Dr Kausadikar, the ICAR has constituted 19 BSMA (broad subject matter area) committees with eminent agricultural scientists, academics, and subject matter specialists to revise the syllabus.
Zero-budget farming emphasises on a shift of agriculture practices from mono-crops to a diversified multi-cropping system. Cow dung and urine are used to make organic fertilisers such as Beejamrit, Jivamrit and Ghanjivamrit.
Other traditional practices such as mulching the soil with biomass or keeping the soil covered with green cover around the year, even when water availability is low, are practices that ensure sustained productivity even from the first year of adoption, say experts.
