Chhattisgarh will take up ‘Zero Budget-Natural Farming’ in five acres of land available with the Agriculture Department, Chhattisgarh State Seed and Agriculture Development Corporation and the Agriculture Science Centers, State Agriculture Minister Brjmohan Agrawal announced on Wednesday.

He was addressing a two-day Workshop on ‘Zero Budget-Natural Farming’ at the Indira Gandhi Agriculture University here.

The Minister said that the ‘Zero-Budget Natural Farming’ is a technique which does not involve use of any chemical fertilizer or insecticides.

He said that more than 75 per cent of the farmers in Chhattisgarh are either marginal or small farmers who have limited funds for investment. These farmers cannot afford expensive resources for farming that is why ‘Zero Budget-Natural Farming’ is a viable option.

Agrawal directed the officials to organise a training session for 5,000 farmers in the State before October 15 this year. Agriculture Production Commissioner Sunil Kujur said that  ‘Zero Budget-Natural Farming’ is a good concept which can bring maximum profit to farmers with minimum investment.

Padamshree Subash Palekar said that farming using chemical fertilisers involves cost which also destroys farms and has detrimental effect on the environment, humans and animals.

He said that natural farming is getting popular day by day and about 30 lakh farmers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Gujarat are practising ‘Zero-Budget Natural Faming’.