Title : Prospect of red gram under zero budget natural farming for food, nutritional and environmental security in changing climate
Abstract:
Natural Farming is a chemical-free traditional farming method where the laws of nature are applied to agricultural practices. ZBNF is a technique that emphasizes cultivating crops in harmony with the environment and "Zero Budget" refers to crops with zero production costs. Now a day's farmers are facing lots of problems due to uncertain and uneven distribution of rainfall along with extreme heat in changing climatic situation. As a result, they are unable to cover their up land with the predominant crop and fail to harvest potential yield. Indiscriminate use of synthetic chemicals for controlling weeds, pests, diseases etc by the farmers makes the environment more polluted. West Bengal is also facing a massive shortfall in pulse production in respect of domestic requirement. To mitigate the situations and sustaining food, nutritional and environmental security, 25 red gram germplasm were collected from Purulia district and 12 lines were selected on the basis of parameters suitable for natural farming during 2022-23 crop season. An experiment in natural field was conducted with 12 selected red gram lines with 2 varieties as check in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications at Research Farm of Pulses and Oilseeds Research Station, Berhampore, Murshidabad during 2023-24. The experiment was conducted as per the ZBNF principles. Among the 12 selected lines MRG 22/82 (1345 Kg/ha), MRG 22/89 (1281 Kg/ha), MRG 22/15 (1238 Kg/ha) & MRG 22/19 (1207 Kg/ha) were selected for significantly higher seed yield as compared to the both check variety coupled with competitiveness with weeds, tolerant to various biotic and abiotic stresses and found suitable for ZBNF that ensures better soil biology, improved agro-biodiversity.
