Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami participated in the 'Khet Bachao Abhiyan' programme alongside Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday, 26 June 2026, lending state-level momentum to a national campaign urging farmers to reduce chemical fertilizer use and adopt natural farming practices.

Context

Dhami, posting in Hindi on X, said participation in the event was a shared responsibility: 'रासायनिक उर्वरकों के संतुलित एवं न्यूनतम उपयोग तथा प्राकृतिक खेती को अपनाकर अपनी मिट्टी और आने वाली पीढ़ियों का भविष्य सुरक्षित बनाना हम सभी का दायित्व है' ('It is the responsibility of all of us to secure the future of our soil and coming generations by adopting balanced and minimal use of chemical fertilizers and natural farming'). The statement frames soil conservation as a generational obligation rather than a policy directive alone.

The Khet Bachao Abhiyan — literally 'Save the Farm Campaign' — focuses on farmland conservation through balanced fertilizer application guided by soil health data and a transition toward chemical-free cultivation methods.

Policy Backdrop

The campaign draws on a decade-long policy thread at the central level. The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), launched in 2015, created organic farming clusters and sought to reduce dependence on synthetic inputs. In the same year, the Soil Health Card Scheme was introduced to provide farmers with soil-test-based fertilizer recommendations, directly targeting the problem of overuse.

Around 2020, the Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati component was added under PKVY to scale natural farming at the grassroots level. Chouhan's ministry has been the nodal authority for implementing these schemes, making his co-presence at the Abhiyan a signal of continued central commitment to the agenda.

Uttarakhand has particular ecological stakes in this push. The Himalayan state's fragile soils and sensitive mountain ecosystems have long made it a natural candidate for organic and natural farming transitions, and the state government has pursued parallel initiatives aligned with central schemes.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of the Khet Bachao Abhiyan are farmers across India's agricultural communities, who face the dual pressure of declining soil productivity and rising input costs tied to chemical fertilizers. Excessive fertilizer use has been documented to degrade soil structure, reduce microbial diversity, and increase long-term cultivation costs.

For Uttarakhand's farming communities specifically, a shift toward natural farming methods aligns with both ecological imperatives and the state's positioning as a source of premium organic produce. Reduced chemical inputs could lower farmers' input expenditure while improving the marketability of their crops.

The campaign also carries implications for fertilizer subsidy policy at the national level. India's fertilizer subsidy bill runs into tens of thousands of crore rupees annually, and any structural reduction in chemical fertilizer demand would have significant fiscal consequences alongside environmental benefits.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to whether the Khet Bachao Abhiyan translates into expanded natural farming training programmes under central schemes at the state level, and whether parliamentary discussions on fertilizer subsidy rationalisation gain fresh traction. Uttarakhand's response — in terms of farmer enrolment in PKVY clusters and Soil Health Card uptake — will serve as an early indicator of on-ground impact. CM Dhami's visible alignment with the Union Agriculture Minister suggests the state is positioning itself as a model for Himalayan natural farming adoption.