"Prevailing agricultural practices such as mono-cropping decrease soil moisture content, causing tremendous stress on water resources. Agriculture, today, accounts for almost 70 per cent of the world’s freshwater consumption. The use of external inputs by adoption of uniform, hybridised, and genetically modified crop varieties erodes genetic diversity of seeds, and reduces their capacity to adapt to changing climatic conditions. These practices, coupled with widespread farmland degradation, make agriculture a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and climate change.

Alternative low-input farming practices have emerged in pockets across the world promising reduced input costs and higher yields for farmers, chemical-free food for consumers and improved soil fertility. Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is one such low-input, climate-resilient type of farming that encourages farmers to use lowcost locally-sourced inputs, eliminating the use of artificial fertilisers, and industrial pesticides."

This report presents a map of the possible social, economic and environmental impacts of the ZBNF programme of Andra Pradesh against specific targets under each SDG. ZBNF could help the state of Andra Pradesh make significant progress towards almost a quarter of the 169 SDG targets.