Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan engaged with farmers at a Kisan Chaupal (farmer gathering) in Ayodhya on Thursday, June 25, 2026, organised under the Khet Bachao Abhiyan, reaffirming the Centre's push for natural farming as a viable and profitable alternative to chemical-intensive agriculture.

Context

Posting on X, Chouhan shared the resolve — 'Shuddh ugaunga, shuddh khilauga' ('I will grow pure, I will feed pure') — reflecting the event's core message. He said he was heartened to find that many farmers in the region are already adopting natural farming and earning better returns from it. The chaupal format, a traditional open community dialogue, allowed the minister to interact directly with farming families in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya.

Policy Backdrop

The Khet Bachao Abhiyan is a campaign centred on farmland preservation and the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. It sits within a broader national framework that includes the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, launched in 2015, which supports organic farming clusters and aims to reduce chemical input dependency across states. The National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture, expanded post-2014, has since incorporated natural and climate-resilient farming components, building the institutional scaffolding for initiatives such as the one held in Ayodhya. Natural farming — a chemical-free approach — has been championed at the central level as a means of restoring soil health while lowering input costs for cultivators.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of the Khet Bachao Abhiyan outreach are small and marginal farmers, who bear the heaviest burden of input costs and soil degradation. Chouhan noted that farmers who have already shifted to natural farming are reporting improved profitability — a signal that the model is gaining grassroots acceptance beyond policy documents. For the broader agricultural economy, wider adoption could ease pressure on the government's fertilizer subsidy bill while improving long-term soil productivity. Ayodhya, which has seen significant developmental attention in recent years, is emerging as a site for such agricultural outreach alongside its religious and cultural profile.

What's Next

The Centre is expected to track state-level adoption data under natural farming missions, with any new budgetary allocations for farmer training programmes likely to feature in the next fiscal cycle's deliberations. Events like the Ayodhya chaupal serve as both policy communication tools and ground-level feedback mechanisms for the Agriculture Ministry. If farmer income gains from natural farming can be systematically documented across districts, they could strengthen the case for scaling up dedicated support under existing schemes — and potentially inform a dedicated natural farming policy framework at the national level.