• The Union Cabinet has approved the launch of National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) as a standalone Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare.

• The scheme has a total outlay of Rs 2,481 crore (central share-Rs 1,584 crore and  state share– Rs 897 crore) till the 15th Finance Commission (2025-26).

Benefits of the scheme

• Rooted in the traditional knowledge inherited from their forefathers, farmers will practise natural farming as a chemical free farming which involves local livestock integrated natural farming methods, diversified crop systems, etc. 

• Natural farming follows local agro-ecological principles rooted in local knowledge, location specific technologies and is evolved as per the local agro-ecology.

• Natural farming will build and maintain healthy soil ecosystems, promote biodiversity and encourage diverse cropping systems to enhance resilience as suitable to the local agroecology. 

• NMNF is launched as a shift to scientifically revive and strengthen agriculture practices towards sustainability, climate resilience and healthy food for farmer families and consumers.

• NMNF aims at promoting natural farming practices for providing safe and nutritious food for all. 

• The Mission is designed to support farmers to reduce input cost of cultivation and dependency to externally purchased inputs. 

• It will popularise integrated agriculture-animal husbandry models and establish scientifically supported common standards and easy farmer-friendly certification procedures for naturally grown chemical-free produce, besides creating and promoting a single national brand for such produce.

• NMNF will promote natural farming among one crore farmers in 7.5 lakh hectare.

Implementation of the scheme

• The government will select willing panchayats for the development of 15,000 natural farming clusters and encourage setting up 10,000 need-based bio-input resources centres to supply natural farming inputs with Rs 1 lakh as seed capital assistance.

• Around 18.75 lakh farmers will be trained/supported in a batch of 30 at agriculture universities, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and 200 local natural farming institutions. 

• At the block level, 30,000 Krishi Sakhis/community resource persons will be deployed for awareness generation, mobilisation and handholding of willing farmers in the clusters.

• An online digital platform — with a geo-tagged database of practising farmers, farms, soil health, input costs, etc — will be set up to monitor and track the progress.

• The focus will also be on strengthening on-farm agro-ecological research and knowledge-based extension capacity of agri-institutions like ICAR, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, and agriculture universities, etc. 

• Farmers will be provided with an easy simple certification system and dedicated common branding to provide access to market their natural farming produce. Real time geo-tagged & referenced monitoring of NMNF implementation shall be done through an online portal.

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