Governor of Gujarat Shri Acharya Devarat ji emphasised that natural farming practices recognise the interdependence of the natural ecosystem and human requirements. Inaugurating a two-day national workshop on natural farming conducted by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare at Gujarat Natural Farming Science University, Halol, Gujarat today, the Governor said the natural farming improves soil health, restores natural ecosystems and reduces the dependency of farmers on the external market, reduces input cost, provides greater climate resilience and most of all offers safe and a healthy food and environment for our future generations.

Presiding over the workshop, Dr Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Govt. of India, said that the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF), approved by the Central Government in 2025, is inspired by the farmers and communities from across the country who have been practicing natural farming for decades.  With the objective of leading by doing, the NMNF scheme is aimed at scientifically strengthening the agriculture practices through practice on farmers fields. Thus the NMNF scheme implementation actively involves all the farmers, scientists and institutions with experience of natural farming for natural farming capacity building, training and extension of natural farming across the country, the Secretary said.

The national workshop was attended by 90 resource persons from seven Centres of Natural Farming (CoNFs) from Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal etc. The host University, Gujarat Natural Farming Science University, is one of the identified CoNF for the Mission. The workshop was also attended by 10 local farmers practicing natural farming from Gujarat and 52 Students and Professors from the Gujarat Natural Farming Science University.

Among others, Dr Anju Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture), Govt. of Gujarat, Shri Franklin L. Khobung, Joint Secretary (NRM/RFS/INM), Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Govt. of India, Ms Rachna Kumar, Deputy Secretary (INM/ NF), Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India were present.

This two-day national workshop is the first of the upcoming training activities to be undertaken in National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF). The resource persons have been encouraged to become ambassadors of this historic mission paving way for a paradigm shift in the Indian Agriculture system towards sustainability.

 Backgrounder:

The Government of India reinforced its commitment of rejuvenating the health of soil, water and environment, bringing prosperity to farmers’ lives and towards safe & healthy food by launching a landmark mission - National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) approved in 2025. The National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) has a target of initiating natural farming in 7.5 Lakh ha area and establishing 10,000 need based Bio-Input Resource Centers (BRCs) in 15000 clusters across all States & UTs. The Mission will train 18.75 Lakh farmers to practice natural farming and who will in turn outreach to one crore farmers.  The NMNF mission starts on the field through rounds of hands-on training of Scientists & Farmers Master trainers from KVKs, Central and State Agricultural Universities and Local Natural Farming Institutions and State & District Officials at Centers’ of Natural Farming (CoNF). The CoNFs are Agricultural Universities and national level natural farming institutions that are promoting natural farming, have experience, credibility and expertise in conducting NF training programmes and have ongoing research initiatives. CoNFs have NF model demonstration farms at farmers’ fields for training activities and exposure visits.

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MG/KSR