In the light of the growing concerns about the sustainability of the current input-intensive agriculture system, the need for an alternative farming system has arisen. Among the various alternative farming models practised across the world, Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) has recently come into the spotlight. This paper envisages the economic viability of ZBNF in a local setting. In the empirical survey, the study considers one cluster of farmers practicing ZBNF in Purulia district of West Bengal, India. Empirical evidence presented in this paper is based on the performance of this alternative model of farming in respect of three important parameters, namely cost of cultivation, yield and income. Evidence reveals that the natural farmers have experienced a reduction in per hectare production cost and per hectare yield for their crops in the post-conversion period. More importantly, farmers adopting the ZBNF model (i.e. treatment group) in Purulia were able to enhance their income, compared to their chemical counterparts (i.e. control group). Moreover, an in–depth analysis of performance has been carried out, thereby identifying the factors influencing the long-term sustainability of ZBNF. Results indicate that the long term sustainability of this model of farming is contingent upon the interplay of agro-climatic conditions...

Against the backdrop of liberalised trade in agricultural commodities in the twenty-first century, world food prices have risen at a faster pace since 2007. Food price volatility is inextricably connected with the problems of food security due to its implications for the availability of food, household incomes and purchasing power, malnutrition, per capita consumption expenditure and the changing patterns of  consumption on the part of poor people. In India’s case, a declining trend in the availability of food grains in the post-reform period can be explained by the encouragement given to the export of food grains due to India’s comparative advantage vis-à-vis the international market in relation to the pricing of food grains. However, the mere availability of food in the country is obviously not sufficient to ensure access to food for all households. In this context, our main objective in this paper is to evaluate the implications of food price volatility on access to food across decile classes in India. Empirical results reveal that consumption expenditure differs in both spatial (rural and urban) and temporal (pre- and post-2008) dimensions; specifically, the relative loss of consumption expenditure is significant in urban regions in comparison to rural regions in post-2008. In...