In our kickoff event, Vijay Kumar Thallam will share the exciting story of a program that has helped 1.8 million farmers – in Andhra Pradesh, India – make the transition to natural farming methods, in ways that are productive and profitable.

With widespread disruption of production and transport of synthetic fertilizers due to the war on Iran – and increasing awareness of the ecological effects of fertilizer use – the world needs examples of large-scale farmer-led transitions away from synthetic fertilizers, using methods that don’t collapse farm production or produce widespread famine. The Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) Initiative (formerly called Zero Budget Natural Farming) is one of the strongest examples of success.

APCNF’s farmers replace synthetic fertilizers (as well as GMO seeds and pesticides) with agroecological approaches that include intensely diverse cover crops, natural biostimulants, foliar sprays and seed pelletization to support healthy plant growth and soil biology, and year-round food production. These extremely low-cost methods use local seeds and ingredients from within the village (forest soils, cow dung/urine, herbs, etc.), and result in far higher net profits directly to the farmer with little to no loss in yield, even in the first couple of years.