Hours after tropical cyclone Montha barrelled through coastal Andhra Pradesh on October 29, K Srinivasa Rao, a small farmer from Suggunalanka village in Bapatla district, stood relieved, surrounded by tall, green, and leafy banana plants in his field. His neighbour, S Sivasankar, was devastated, though. His entire banana crop was toppled as the cyclone made landfall between Machilipatnam and Kakinada, bringing winds of up to 110 km per hour and heavy rainfall in its wake. The torrential downpour and gale-force winds damaged standing crops across vast tracts of land in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Amid the trail of devastation, the starkly different fortunes of the two banana growers drew the attention of local and distant farmers who visited to assess the damage and make comparative analyses. The cyclone caused only 5 per cent damage to the banana plants in Srinivasa’s field, while Sivasankar’s crop suffered over 60 per cent loss on one acre. Photos and videos of the fields began circulating widely within the local farming community.
“People were shocked and surprised as both fields had the same variety of bananas but experienced different levels of damage,” shared a delighted Srinivasa over the phone.
Both farmers grew the same variety, Bontha arati, which was sown at the same time in early February and was ready for harvest. “Many people visited to count the damaged, ready-to-harvest plants in both fields,” said Srinivasa, who proudly identifies himself as a practitioner of natural farming (NF). In his field, there were exactly 47 damaged banana plants, while his neighbour lost over 600 plants on one acre. Typically, there are about 1,000 plants in an acre of land. Srinivasa has been practising the natural farming model for just four years, using no chemical fertilisers, supported by a state government initiative known as Zero-Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF). “I was motivated to adopt natural farming due to its benefits such as lower input costs and better market prices, but never expected such resilience to extreme climatic events like cyclones,” he said. During December 3–5, 2023, when cyclone Michaung hit the southern coast, two paddy fields located side by side in Chomoduvalam village of Guntur district showed a telling contrast. Photos revealed that the chemical fertiliser-fed paddy crop was completely lodged, while the one grown using the natural farming model withstood sustained winds of up to 111 km/h. A similar story was observed in December 2018 after cyclone Phethai hit the coast, although at that time, the practice of ZBNF was not widespread.
How did the crops survive cyclones?
Research indicates that ZBNF fields had shorter shoots and longer roots compared to chemical farming, which allowed the banana plants to anchor themselves more effectively in the ground and withstand strong winds. Experts note that banana crops of NF practitioners perform better in terms of fruit size and plant growth when compared to chemical farming. For instance, the length of the banana bunch from NF plants averages 30 cm, while it is 28 cm in the case of chemical farming (CF). Additionally, the width of the bunch is 39 cm for NF and 27.9 cm for CF. In terms of stem girth, NF plants average 26.5 cm, while CF plants have 25.5 cm. Further, the average height of NF banana plants is 12.23 ft, compared to 10.9 ft for CF plants. There are also differences in the width of banana leaves and the fibrosity of the stems. The average earthworm count in an area of 20 cm³ is 7 for NF, compared to only 2 for CF. The stronger plants naturally stood up to the might of rain and wind. Interestingly, there were no incidents of pest or disease attacks on either crop.
The cyclone’s impact on the economy of the two farmers was different as well. Srinivasa, who invested र30,000 in his one-acre field, is expected to reap benefits of up to र1.5 lakh, while Sivasankar invested around र50,000 but might just make र30,000 — significantly less than his total investment.
A similar trend was observed with paddy crops during cyclone Michaung. Experts suggest that not only can NF crops withstand severe cyclones, but studies also indicate that they are capable of overcoming abiotic stresses induced by floods and droughts.
What is natural farming?
The natural farming model, earlier known as ZBNF, started in 2014 and was later renamed the Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme in 2019. The model promotes intercropping, which enables plants to harvest all required nutrient elements such as water and nutrition from nature while sustainably enhancing soil health, yields and incomes for smallholder farmers. “The model involves intensive intercropping, where income from intercrops compensates all the cultivation costs, and the income from the main crop is the actual real income,” said Subhash Palekar, the agricultural scientist who conceptualised ZBNF. The NF-enhanced leaf and stem trichomes ignite below-surface microbial activity to build soil structure with greater infiltration capacity, enabling the plant to retain moisture through the use of crop residue bio-mulch or green cover from intercropped plants or vegetables.
“This helps in growing healthier crops that can withstand abiotic and biotic stresses,” says TV Visweswara Rao of Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), a not-for-profit company formed by the local government to promote and scale up APCNF. Currently, APCNF represents the world’s largest transition to agroecological farming practices, with 6,30,000 farmers already addressing multiple development challenges — rural livelihoods, access to nutritious food, biodiversity loss, climate change, water scarcity and pollution. “The APCNF target is to transform the state’s six million farmers over six million hectares and benefit 50 million consumers,” said Rao.