One cow, 30 acres, zero chemicals: Gujarat's farming shift

Technology Manager Ramsinh Chauhan said farmers in Dhanpur Taluka get ₹10,800 per year under the ATMA Project. The project also sets up Bio-Resource Centres (BRCs) to ensure local availability of natural formulations like Jeevamrut, Ghan Jeevamrut, Agni Astra, and Brahmastra. A BRC unit costs ₹1 lakh under the Mission Cluster Scheme, or ₹60,000 under the Non-Mission category.

Hatila said excessive chemical fertiliser use had damaged soil fertility. Natural farming reversed that. The soil recovers over two to three seasons. The financial assistance is small – ₹10,800 per farmer – but the leverage on the state's agricultural budget is large. A farmer who previously spent ₹15,000–₹20,000 per acre on fertilisers can cut that to near zero. The government spends ₹10,800 and gets a reduction in long-term fertiliser subsidy burden, soil degradation costs, and healthcare expenses tied to chemical runoff.

The model is still limited in reach. Dahod's ATMA project covers a few hundred farmers. The per-farmer cost is low, and the training infrastructure already exists. If the state scales it to tens of thousands of farmers, the savings on fertiliser subsidy alone could run into hundreds of crores. For a smallholder with two acres, ₹10,800 in aid plus zero fertiliser spend means a net income gain of roughly ₹30,000 a year. That is enough to make the practice stick.