Abstract:
Food is fundamental to life. Majority of the food consumed by Indians come from
small and marginal farms. The small and marginal farmer who puts food on our plate
goes hungry and is unable to meet some basic needs of his family. If the producer of
the food were to go hungry then there is something quite problematic with the present
system of agriculture. This thesis is an attempt to understand what are the sustainable
farming and the discourses around these practices in India. It also analyses the costs
and benefits of one such sustainable farming practice, Zero Budget Natural Farming, in
comparison with the present chemical farming. It is found that ZBNF farming is more
profitable than chemical farming. In spite of such farming practices being profitable to
farmers, the policy space is explored to understand what lacks in the policy ecosystem
that doesn’t promote such farmer friendly system from fringe to mainstream.
