ISAS Insights

Introduced a little more than three years ago, the Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) programme in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has attracted considerable international attention. The ZBNF is a farming practice that avoids the use of external chemical inputs and relies on drawing inputs from nature itself. Implemented by the Rythu Sadhikara Samastha, a not-for-profit company of the government of Andhra Pradesh, the ZBNF has been adopted by more than 163,000 farmers in 9,722 villages across all 13 districts of the state. Initial results on the adoption of the ZBNF practices in the state are encouraging in terms of higher net incomes for farmers and greater crop yield. The key implementation challenge is to maintain the rate of progress on its wider adoption by encouraging farmers to switch from conventional chemical input-based farming to the ‘natural’ ZBNF practice.