Vol. 12, Issue 1 (2023)

Author(s):
Angana Sarmah and Promod C Deka

Abstract:
Green Revolution (GR) with the introduction of high yielding varieties and advancement of technology in agriculture able to transform India from food scarce country to food sufficient country by 1990s. But soon the ill effects of modern agriculture has realised on soil, environment as well as on human health resulting in stagnating/declining crop productivity (Rahman, 2015)^[9]. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides affects soil health by killing millions of microbes present in soil which are important for sustaining crop yield (Jayashree and Vasudevan, 2007)^[6]. The intensive agricultural practices accompanied with indiscriminate use of agrochemicals and plant growh regulators increases the cost of production and lower the profitability of farming. Moreover, the uncertain market conditions and climate change effects makes agriculture an unremunerative occupation to the small and marginal farmers of Assam. Under such condition, the phenomenon of natural Farming is the only solution to nurture the land and regenerate the soil by going back to our traditional methods of farming with the four pillars of Zero Budget Natural farming (ZBNF) i.e. Jeevamrit, Beejamrit, Acchadana or Mulching and Whapasa (Khadse et al. 2018)^[7] This is a possible step for sustainable growth of agriculture to produce nutritious food in sufficient quantity with ecosystem sustainability.