Community-managed Natural Farming
Community-Managed Natural Farming (CNF) methods like dry, wet, and live mulching and 365-day multi-layered multiple cropping quickly build soil microbiota and aeration, which improves water percolation, soil water retention, and air-water harvesting. CNF and soil humus increase plant water needs. This reduces water input, improves agricultural water efficiency, and drought-proofs crops without affecting yields.
Initiative of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Government
The AP government started the Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) in 2015 to bring six million farmers and six million hectares of land under AP Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) by 2030. By 2020–21, over 700,000 farmers and farm workers in 3,730 Gram Panchayats (GPs) participated in the program.
CoreCarbonX impact study of APCNF in six agro-climatic zones
CoreCarbonX has been hired to do a large-scale, comprehensive study in six agro-climatic zones of Andhra Pradesh to confirm and measure how much water and energy can be saved because natural farming uses less water on agricultural farmlands. Control groups of CNF and non-CNF farmers cultivating three major crops in Kharif and Rabi across the following six agro-climatic zones are assessed.
- High Altitude Tribal areas of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari districts,
- North Coastal Zone of Plains of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam,
- Godavari Zone (East Godavari Plains, West Godavari),
- Krishna Zone (Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam),
- Southern Zone (Chittoor, Kadapa, Nellore),
- Scarce Rainfall Zone (Anantapur, Kurnool)
This assessment is followed by district-level natural farming analysis and mapping to improve understanding of the scale of impact of APCNF and provide actionable information about natural farming practices’ social and economic impacts for state-level adaptation planning, targets, and actions. Policymakers, administrators, development partners, and NGOs use this information to plan and execute interventions.
Community-managed Natural Farming saves water and energy consumption
A preliminary pilot study has shown that Community-managed Natural Farming (CNF) has the potential to alleviate the over-extraction of groundwater by decreasing the need for irrigation water and the state’s fiscal burden on power subsidies, thereby achieving the objectives of both water and energy conservation.
The project also involved the assessment of increased market participation from smallholder CNF farmers.
We work on the impact assessment of Community-managed Natural Farming initiatives of various governments.
