Coimbatore : A brainstorming session on zero-budget organic farming was held at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here on Wednesday, as part of the ongoing 13th annual group meet of All India Network Programme on Organic Farming.

Around 30 organic and zero budget farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu along with 30 scientists, agricultural department officials and university officers participated in the discussion.

The session deliberated on some suggestions, which would be submitted to the State and Central Governments as recommendations for further action.

These included that zero budget farming should be adopted only after several years of organic farming and the term could be replaced with ‘Low external input sustainable agriculture’ or something similar.

Adherence to scientific approaches in all components of organic farming, ensuring availability of quality inputs and encouraging inter-cropping and mixed cropping in organic/zero budget farms were a few others

The session also recommended adhering to the concept of one cow per 30 acres as suggested by the zero budget farmers.

Chairing the session, Additional Director General in Indian Council for Agricultural Research Dr S Bhaskar stressed the importance of scientific approaches in these farming concepts.

He insisted that zero budget should not mislead farmers. Though many organic farming experts shared their experience in gaining more revenue due to lesser cost on input, a few others said there was a waiting period of three to five years for achieving expected production.