A question of sales

Natural farming practices have drastically reduced input costs, but Himachal Pradesh's farmers still lack market access

-  VINEET KUMAR SHIMLA, HIMACHAL PRADESH

IN 2018, when Himachal Pradesh decided to bring the entire state under natural farming and launched the Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y), the scheme was hailed as a timely intervention. Agriculture in this Himalayan state has been facing challenges in recent years due to changing temperatures and rainfall and snowfall patterns. Officials with the state's agriculture department admit that there has been a 161 per cent increase in the use of chemical fertilisers between 1985-86 and 2019-20. Use of pesticides has also increased among farmers. This affects their health and pushes them into debt trap while harming the sensitive ecology of the region.

PK3y aims to increase farmers' income by maintaining harmony with nature and adopting low-cost climate-resilient farming practices.

So far, more than 174,000 or 18 per cent of farmers in the state, have opted for the scheme, bringing about 1.7 per cent of the total cultivable area under natural farming, according to data with the agriculture department. Early this year, researchers with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an advocacy group based in New Delhi, visited Solan, Shimla, Bilaspur and Mandi districts of the state to assess how the scheme has fared so far. Farmers say the practice has helped improve crop productivity and land fertility, while drastically reducing farm input costs. However, they struggle to realise the real benefits of their efforts due to a lack of access to markets and assured prices for their produce. Besides, the farming system promoted by the government does not always work.

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