International conference on “Natural Farming for Revitalizing Environment and Resilient Agriculture” will be held at Imphal

International conference on “Natural Farming for Revitalizing Environment and Resilient Agriculture” will be held during March 17-19, 2023 at Central Agriculture University, Imphal

Modern agriculture has made us self-sufficient in food grains and we are able to feed every citizen. But, on the other side, soil and water are being polluted and the biology of the soil is also being disturbed. Moreover, modern agriculture is mainly dependent on external inputs and therefore, the cost of cultivation is increasing. A national level consultative meeting was organized by NITI Ayog of India during September 29-30, 2022 where a detailed discussion was made and it was decided to think over the old way of farming, natural farming. Then, a second such type of national level meeting was organized involving the higher level agricultural scientists of ICAR on October 9, 2020 and the decision of the previous meeting was endorsed.

It was said that natural farming may be the best solution to face the challenges and transform modern agriculture into natural farming. Then, in a high level officers’ meeting of ICAR, it was decided to implement UG & PG courses on natural farming and Dr. Anupam Mishra, Vice-Chancellor of C. A. U., Imphal was nominated as Member Secretary of Course Development Committee on March 31, 2022

Natural Farming is purported to be a unique solution of farm practice which envisages ecological or regenerative agriculture approaches under which applying any kind of chemicals to soil bio-systems is prohibited. It relies more on soil biology than soil chemistry by encouraging multi-cropping, round-the-year soil cover, the addition of formulation made up of cow dung and urine to trigger the microorganisms in the soil system.

Govt. of India is emphasizing to transform the modem agriculture into nature endowed natural farming with programmes Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (BPKP) and Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP) yojana. In the current budget of 2022-23, the Govt has a target to transform one crore farmers into natural farmers during the next three years. And up to February 4, 2022, 4980.99 lakhs of rupees have been released to implement these schemes.

Keeping this in view an International Conference on “Natural Farming for Revitalizing Environment and Resilient Agriculture” NF-RERA-2023 has been planned to be held from March 17 to 19, 2023 at Central Agricultural University (CAU). Imphal. The Conference will have eight Technical Sessions as (1) Natural Farming and Socio-Economic Transformation of Rural Households in Wetland Ecosystems, (ii) Food System diversity including the Transition Pathways to Sustainable Food Systems in different Ecosystem, (iii) Integration of Trans-disciplinary Science and Local Knowledge for Transformation of Food Systems in various ecosystems, (iv) Role of Traditional Environmental Management with Ecosystem Resilience Against Vulnerabilities.

Shocks and Stresses, (v) Incorporating Ecological Principles as in Operational Framework for Transitioning to Sustainable Agriculture in Diverse Agro Ecosystems, (vi) Nature of Poverty, Food Insecurity and Environmental Degradation as the Recurrent Problems in Major Farming Systems, (vii) Ecosystem Valuation and Policy Intervention at Government Level, (vi) Role of Livestock in Natural Resources Management.