Comparative evaluation of low-cost natural farming, organic farming and conventional farming in major crops of South Saurashtra region at Junagadh, Gujarat, India

Abstract

Conventional farming always modifying by good innovation in agriculture,  while the holistic idea of organic farming checks the use of synthetic inputs where in opposite side, the concept of natural farming allowing farming with few traditional and locally available inputs. The all three farming concepts are fundamentally different, to check it on real field, a experiment was conducted on medium black calcareous clayey soil at Junagadh (Gujarat) during rabi 2019-20 to kharif 2020 in order to evaluate low cost natural farming, organic farming and conventional farming in major six crops of Gujarat. The experimental results revealed that conventional farming module significantly increased yields of crops as compared to organic farming and low cost natural farming. Significantly higher available nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium after harvest was found under conventional farming, while organic farming module registered significantly higher organic carbon, heat soluble S; DTPA-extractable Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn after harvest, which was found at par with conventional farming. Economic analysis showed that maximum net returns gross returns, and B:C ratio were observed under conventional farming module.