M. Venkaiah Naidu also visited the village and interacted with the farmers

Vijaywada: A nondescript village, Seri Narasanna Palem, popularly known as SN Palem, in Krishna district, has adopted Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), shunning the use of chemical pesticides, and achieved recognition as a total nature farming village. Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu also visited the village and interacted with the farmers on Thursday.

The village has 88 acres of farmlands, belonging to 116 farmers, of whom, 97 farmers turned to ZBNF and are cultivating paddy through organic farming. Farmers of neighbouring villages are drawing inspiration from SN Palem and planning to switch to ZBNF.

Of the total population of 1,131 in SN Palem, 581 are men and 550 are women. The villagers recalled that it was a farmer couple, Ch. Ram Prasad and Naga Lakshmi, who began ZBNF in their village, 11 years ago. Gradually, all the farmers in the village switched to ZBNF.

Mr Ram Prasad narrated the event that made him think of ZBNF. “I had given three acres of my farmland on lease. One day, I found that a large amount of chemical pesticide was being used in that fields and started worrying about the crops.”

Mr Prasad said, “It was then that I started ZBNF. Initially, the yield was very less but later, it started increasing. We cultivated paddy and even other crops and they all gave good yield.”

He said he helped other farmers in the village also to switch to ZBNF and cultivate paddy with good yield in 88 acres of farmlands. "ZBNF reduced our expenditure of pesticides and fertilisers and it also is helping us cultivate crops of good quality, which have good demand in the market," the villagers said.

ZBNF project director Vijaya Kumari said that SN Palem has become a nature farming village completely and that K. Seetarampuram, a neighbouring village, has adopted ZBNF recently. 

Venkaiah Naidu: Go for nature farming

Vice president of India M. Venkaiah Naidu asserted the need for a countrywide debate on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) and sought promotion of ZBNF to turn agriculture as a profitable profession. He visited SN Palem village in Krishna district on Thursday, inspected the ZBNF farmlands and interacted with the farmers. “Nature would show its fury, if we damage it,” he told the farmers and asked them to protect it.

He suggested ZBNF founder and farmer Subhash Palekar's name for Padmasri award for his arduous efforts in preserving the environment.

Mr Venkaiah Naidu urged farmers to make farming into a “fashionable” profession by switching to ZBNF, and attract the younger generations towards it.

Recalling the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “India lives in villages,” the Vice President said that he is also a farmer and that he hails from an agricultural family. Urging farmers to switch to ZBNF, he suggested that they should not fear to continue to practise it even if they incur losses initially, as it would give huge benefits in the long run.

He urged farmers to make use of Rythu Mitra groups. Mr Venkaiaha Naidu said that in ZBNF, expense on water, power and pesticides would reduce. He lauded Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for promoting ZBNF in the state. 

Satyavati, a ZBNF farmer of K Seetarampuram, said she got a bumper yield of 40 bags per acre by switching to natural farming. ZBNF farmers of SN Palem Ch Sambasivaiah and Ramakrishna said that the quality of the rice being cultivated under ZBNF is also very good and that it has good demand in the market.

AP minister for agriculture S. Chandramohan Reddy, minister for social welfare N. Ananda Babu, Krishna ZP chairperson G. Anuradha, district collector 

B. Lakshmikantham, agriculture advisor to government Vijay minister and others were present.