Natural farming is a low-input approach built around on-farm preparations, soil cover, and biological activity rather than purchased fertilisers and pesticides. It has substantial government backing in India through dedicated missions, and considerable enthusiasm around it.
It also has a transition period that is rarely discussed honestly, and understanding that is the difference between a successful conversion and an abandoned one.
The Core Practices
Microbial inoculant from cow dung
A fermented preparation made from cow dung, cow urine, jaggery, pulse flour and soil, applied to the field to introduce and feed soil microorganisms. It is not a fertiliser in the conventional sense — the quantity of nutrients is small. It works by stimulating biological activity that makes existing soil nutrients available.
Seed treatment
Seeds are treated before sowing with a similar dung and urine based preparation, intended to protect against soil-borne and seed-borne disease at germination.
Mulching
Soil is kept covered at all times — with crop residue, live cover crops, or both. This conserves moisture, moderates soil temperature, suppresses weeds and feeds soil organisms as it decomposes.
Soil aeration and moisture
The approach emphasises keeping soil moist rather than flooded, with alternate furrow irrigation and minimal disturbance.
Intercropping
Multiple crops grown together, typically pairing a legume with a cereal, so that one crop’s cost is covered while the other provides the margin.
Preparing the Basic Inputs
The main preparations are made on farm from cow dung, cow urine, jaggery, pulse flour and uncontaminated soil, fermented in shade for a few days with regular stirring. Specific ratios and fermentation times vary between practitioners and training programmes.
Get the method from a trained source — your KVK, a state natural farming mission programme, or an established practitioner — rather than from a social media video. Preparations made wrong do not work and the farmer concludes the whole approach is useless.
The Transition Period
This is the part that needs saying plainly.
A field that has been under heavy chemical fertiliser for years has low biological activity. When external inputs are withdrawn, the soil cannot immediately supply what the crop needs, because the biological system that would do so has not developed yet.
The consequence is that yields commonly dip during the first two to three seasons before recovering. How much, and for how long, depends on your starting soil condition, your organic matter levels, and how well you manage the transition.
Anyone who tells you there is no transition dip is either working with soil that was already in good biological condition, or is not being straight with you.
How to Convert Without Risking the Farm
- Convert one plot, not the whole holding. Keep the rest under your existing system so your income is protected
- Start with the plot that has the best organic matter status — it will transition faster
- Build organic matter first. Apply farmyard manure and compost heavily in the season before you start
- Get trained. State missions and KVKs run programmes. The preparations and timing matter
- Keep records. Cost of cultivation, yield, and net margin, plot by plot. This is the only way to know whether it is working for you
Where It Works Best
- Farms with cattle on hand, since the preparations depend on dung and urine
- Rainfed and low-input farms where chemical use was already limited — these transition fastest
- Farmers with access to a premium market for chemical-free produce
- Holdings where input cost is the binding constraint rather than yield
Where It Is Harder
- Farms with no cattle access, where preparation material must be bought
- High-intensity irrigated systems with high yield expectations and no price premium
- Farmers with debt obligations that cannot absorb two seasons of lower income
The Economic Case
The argument for natural farming is not primarily about yield. It is about margin. If input cost falls substantially and yield falls less, the farmer earns more even at the same output. Where a price premium is available, the case is stronger.
Whether that arithmetic works on your farm depends on your current input spend, your soil, and your market — which is exactly why you should test it on one plot and keep records rather than converting on principle.
Practices and preparations vary by region and school of practice. Get training from your Krishi Vigyan Kendra or state natural farming mission before converting, and consult them on suitability for your soil and cropping system.