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

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

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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)	(In-Press)
Journal	Nature Ecology and Evolution
Volume	(In-Press)
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.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Ecology

UN SDGs

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

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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, (In-Press), (In-Press). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02849-7

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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.",

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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. ",

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

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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