Why in news? 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the experiments of natural farming in Surat district of Gujarat.

Highlights:

• A conclave on natural farming was held in Surat on July 10
• Modi said agriculture system is the basis of the country’s and its people’s life and health. “India has been an agriculture based country by nature and culture. Therefore, as our farmer progresses, as our agriculture progresses and prospers, so will our country progress
• Natural farming is a means of prosperity as well as respecting and serving mother earth.

What is natural farming?

• Natural Farming is a chemical-free alias traditional farming method. It is considered as agroecology based diversified farming system which integrates crops, trees and livestock with functional biodiversity.
• It holds the promise of enhancing farmers’ income while delivering many other benefits, such as restoration of soil fertility and environmental health, and mitigating and/or reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• This farming approach was introduced by Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and philosopher, in his 1975 book The One-Straw Revolution.
• Internationally, Natural Farming is considered a form of regenerative agriculture—a prominent strategy to save the planet.
• In India, Natural farming is promoted as Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP) under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY).
• BPKP is aimed at promoting traditional indigenous practices which reduce externally purchased inputs.

Advantages of natural farming:

• Protect the quality of the soil, its productivity.
• When you do natural farming you are serving nature and the environment.
• It also saves people from deadly diseases caused by the unbridled use of chemicals.

Surat Model of Natural Farming:

• In Surat, village committees, taluka committees and district committees were formed to select 75 farmers from each village panchayat to get into natural farming.
• This resulted in more than 40,000 farmers from over 550 panchayats taking up natural farming in a short span of time.

Other Models: five-km natural farming corridor is being developed along both banks of the river Ganga.

• Such corridors can also be developed on the banks of the Tapi and the Narmada rivers.