India’s agroecology programme, ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’, delivers biodiversity and economic benefits without lowering yields

Iris Berger; Ajit Kamble; Oscar Morton; Varsha Raj; Sayuj R. Nair; David P. Edwards; Hannah S. Wauchope; Viral Joshi; Parthiba Basu; Barbara Smith; Lynn V. Dicks

doi:10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7

India’s agroecology programme, ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’, delivers biodiversity and economic benefits without lowering yields

Iris Berger
, Ajit Kamble
, Oscar Morton
, Varsha Raj
, Sayuj R. Nair
, David P. Edwards
, Hannah S. Wauchope
, Viral Joshi
, Parthiba Basu
, Barbara Smith
, Lynn V. Dicks

Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

University of Cambridge
University of Sheffield
University of Edinburgh
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati
Calcutta University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The Global Biodiversity Framework promotes agroecological farming approaches¹, yet rigorous system-wide evaluations of agroecological programmes are urgently needed to balance the intertwined but partially competing Sustainable Development Goals of curbing food insecurity, improving human well-being and tackling biodiversity loss. Here we focus on the largest agroecological transition globally—the 64,000 km² government-incentivized zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) programme in India—to co-analyse socio-economic and biodiversity impacts. ZBNF more than doubled farmers’ economic profits and maintained comparable crop yields. Bird biodiversity outcomes were improved, with the densities of bird species and functional guilds involved in pest control and seed dispersal increasing; however, natural forests remain essential to sustaining populations of forest-specialized species. Trade-offs between bird densities and landscape-scale yields and profit were substantially less pronounced in ZBNF than in conventional, agrichemical-based farming systems, underscoring the benefits of agroecological interventions with aligned protection of natural ecosystems.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2057-2068
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Ecology and Evolution
Volume	9
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7
Publication status	Published - 19 Sept 2025

Bibliographical note

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Funding

I.B. was supported by the Whitten Studentship, School of Biological Sciences Fieldwork Fund, Tim Whitmore Zoology Fund, Hitchcock Fund and Corpus Christi College Research Fund at the University of Cambridge. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. We are immensely grateful to all the farmers who participated in this study, to R. Bandi and F. Tampal from WWF-India, and to Rythu Sadhikara Samstha staff for their support in the field. This paper is dedicated to the late Parthib Basu, without whose energy, passion and scientific excellence it would never have been possible.

Funders
University of Cambridge

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 2 Zero Hunger

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Ecology

Access to Document

10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7Licence: CC BY

Smith2025VORFinal published version, 4.75 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Berger, I., Kamble, A., Morton, O., Raj, V., Nair, S. R., Edwards, D. P., Wauchope, H. S., Joshi, V., Basu, P., Smith, B., & Dicks, L. V. (2025). India’s agroecology programme, ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’, delivers biodiversity and economic benefits without lowering yields. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 9(11), 2057-2068. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7

@article{06636633dd184e20b8b4fb3300746ccb,

title = "India{\textquoteright}s agroecology programme, {\textquoteleft}Zero Budget Natural Farming{\textquoteright}, delivers biodiversity and economic benefits without lowering yields",

abstract = "The Global Biodiversity Framework promotes agroecological farming approaches1, yet rigorous system-wide evaluations of agroecological programmes are urgently needed to balance the intertwined but partially competing Sustainable Development Goals of curbing food insecurity, improving human well-being and tackling biodiversity loss. Here we focus on the largest agroecological transition globally—the 64,000 km2 government-incentivized zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) programme in India—to co-analyse socio-economic and biodiversity impacts. ZBNF more than doubled farmers{\textquoteright} economic profits and maintained comparable crop yields. Bird biodiversity outcomes were improved, with the densities of bird species and functional guilds involved in pest control and seed dispersal increasing; however, natural forests remain essential to sustaining populations of forest-specialized species. Trade-offs between bird densities and landscape-scale yields and profit were substantially less pronounced in ZBNF than in conventional, agrichemical-based farming systems, underscoring the benefits of agroecological interventions with aligned protection of natural ecosystems.",

author = "Iris Berger and Ajit Kamble and Oscar Morton and Varsha Raj and Nair, \{Sayuj R.\} and Edwards, \{David P.\} and Wauchope, \{Hannah S.\} and Viral Joshi and Parthiba Basu and Barbara Smith and Dicks, \{Lynn V.\}",

note = "Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. ",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

day = "19",

doi = "10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7",

language = "English",

volume = "9",

pages = "2057--2068",

journal = "Nature Ecology and Evolution",

issn = "2397-334X",

publisher = "Nature Research",

number = "11",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - India’s agroecology programme, ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’, delivers biodiversity and economic benefits without lowering yields

AU - Berger, Iris

AU - Kamble, Ajit

AU - Morton, Oscar

AU - Raj, Varsha

AU - Nair, Sayuj R.

AU - Edwards, David P.

AU - Wauchope, Hannah S.

AU - Joshi, Viral

AU - Basu, Parthiba

AU - Smith, Barbara

AU - Dicks, Lynn V.

N1 - Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

PY - 2025/9/19

Y1 - 2025/9/19

N2 - The Global Biodiversity Framework promotes agroecological farming approaches1, yet rigorous system-wide evaluations of agroecological programmes are urgently needed to balance the intertwined but partially competing Sustainable Development Goals of curbing food insecurity, improving human well-being and tackling biodiversity loss. Here we focus on the largest agroecological transition globally—the 64,000 km2 government-incentivized zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) programme in India—to co-analyse socio-economic and biodiversity impacts. ZBNF more than doubled farmers’ economic profits and maintained comparable crop yields. Bird biodiversity outcomes were improved, with the densities of bird species and functional guilds involved in pest control and seed dispersal increasing; however, natural forests remain essential to sustaining populations of forest-specialized species. Trade-offs between bird densities and landscape-scale yields and profit were substantially less pronounced in ZBNF than in conventional, agrichemical-based farming systems, underscoring the benefits of agroecological interventions with aligned protection of natural ecosystems.

AB - The Global Biodiversity Framework promotes agroecological farming approaches1, yet rigorous system-wide evaluations of agroecological programmes are urgently needed to balance the intertwined but partially competing Sustainable Development Goals of curbing food insecurity, improving human well-being and tackling biodiversity loss. Here we focus on the largest agroecological transition globally—the 64,000 km2 government-incentivized zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) programme in India—to co-analyse socio-economic and biodiversity impacts. ZBNF more than doubled farmers’ economic profits and maintained comparable crop yields. Bird biodiversity outcomes were improved, with the densities of bird species and functional guilds involved in pest control and seed dispersal increasing; however, natural forests remain essential to sustaining populations of forest-specialized species. Trade-offs between bird densities and landscape-scale yields and profit were substantially less pronounced in ZBNF than in conventional, agrichemical-based farming systems, underscoring the benefits of agroecological interventions with aligned protection of natural ecosystems.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105016729204

U2 - 10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7

DO - 10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105016729204

SN - 2397-334X

VL - 9

SP - 2057

EP - 2068

JO - Nature Ecology and Evolution

JF - Nature Ecology and Evolution

IS - 11

ER -

India’s agroecology programme, ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’, delivers biodiversity and economic benefits without lowering yields

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this