A study on natural farming in India and its impact on wildlife conservation, biodiversity preservation, and climate change

Abstract

Natural farming has gained increasing global attention as an agroecological strategy capable of addressing the interconnected challenges of agricultural sustainability, biodiversity loss, climate change, and rural livelihood security. In India, the expansion of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), subsequently integrated into the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF), has accelerated scientific and policy interest in evaluating its environmental, agronomic, and socioeconomic outcomes. Despite a rapidly growing body of literature, evidence remains fragmented across disciplines, limiting a comprehensive understanding of its overall effectiveness. This study addresses this gap through a systematic review of 100 peer-reviewed publications following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) guidelines. The review synthesizes evidence across ten thematic domains, including agroecological foundations, soil health, microbial diversity, biodiversity conservation, wildlife interactions, climate resilience, carbon sequestration, crop productivity, socioeconomic performance, farmer adoption, and policy interventions. The findings indicate that natural farming consistently enhances soil biological activity, soil organic carbon, microbial diversity, ecosystem resilience, beneficial insects, and avian diversity while reducing dependence on synthetic agrochemicals, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and decreasing cultivation costs. However, important scientific uncertainties persist regarding long-term nutrient availability, yield stability across contrasting agroecological conditions, biomass and manure requirements, economic scalability, and institutional support for widespread adoption. This review advances the literature by developing an integrated conceptual framework that connects ecological processes, farm management practices, biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and socioeconomic resilience within a unified systems perspective. It further identifies priority research gaps and proposes future multidisciplinary research directions to strengthen the evidence base. The findings demonstrate that natural farming represents a promising pathway toward climate-resilient, biodiversity-positive, and economically sustainable agricultural systems, while underscoring the need for long-term, region-specific empirical evaluations to inform evidence-based policy and sustainable agricultural transformation.