Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday, 25 June 2026, shared that he held a direct conversation with farmers practising natural farming, highlighting their on-ground experiments as evidence that the method can meaningfully cut cultivation costs and reduce expenditure on fertilisers.

Posting on X, the Minister wrote: 'आज मुझे खुशी है कि प्राकृतिक खेती करने वाले किसानों से मेरी चर्चा हुई।' ('Today I am happy to have had a discussion with farmers who practise natural farming.') He added that the experiments they shared demonstrate how input costs fall and fertiliser spending is saved — and urged followers to take note of those experiences.

Context

Natural farming refers to chemical-free cultivation methods that rely on locally available biological inputs — cow dung, cow urine, plant-based preparations — instead of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. For small and marginal farmers, the cost of purchased inputs is one of the most persistent drains on net income, making any credible reduction in that burden a significant proposition.

Chouhan's engagement with practising farmers signals a ground-level outreach approach, seeking testimony from those already running these methods rather than relying solely on institutional data.

Policy Backdrop

The central government has been building a policy architecture around natural and organic farming for over a decade. The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), launched in 2015, created organic farming clusters across states and provided financial support to farmer groups transitioning away from chemical inputs.

More directly, the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) — a dedicated central scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare — promotes chemical-free natural farming with the twin objectives of cutting input costs and improving long-term soil health. The 2020 Union Budget explicitly directed greater promotion of natural farming to reduce farmers' dependence on chemical fertilisers, a concern that also carries fiscal weight given the size of India's annual fertiliser subsidy bill.

These schemes form the institutional backdrop against which Chouhan's field conversations take on policy relevance: the minister is, in effect, collecting ground-truth validation for a programme his ministry is actively scaling.

Stakeholders and Impact

Small and marginal farmers stand to gain most directly if natural farming methods demonstrably lower input costs, since they lack the acreage to absorb high per-unit expenditure on fertilisers and pesticides. Soil degradation — a consequence of decades of intensive chemical use — is another concern that natural farming proponents argue the method addresses over successive crop cycles.

From a fiscal standpoint, a meaningful shift toward low-external-input agriculture would also ease pressure on the government's fertiliser subsidy outlay, which runs into tens of thousands of crore rupees annually. The alignment between farmer welfare and subsidy rationalisation gives the natural farming push a dual motivation within the current policy framework.

What's Next

Revised guidelines and expanded training modules under the natural farming programme are expected in the coming agricultural year, according to the policy trajectory the ministry has signalled. Chouhan's public engagement with farmer-practitioners suggests the ministry may look to amplify such testimonies as part of awareness and adoption drives.

The broader question is whether outreach and scheme incentives can accelerate the transition at scale — particularly in states where chemical-input dependency is deeply entrenched — and whether the cost savings farmers report in practice match the projections built into the scheme's design.