There is an unusual busyness in the air in India’s agricultural universities. 

In December, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) decided to send out an end-of-the-year nudge to the 74 universities it oversees across the country. It urged the institutions to introduce natural farming as a part of their undergraduate course offerings as soon as possible.

Natural farming has become a “subject of national importance”, wrote the director general of ICAR, the top agricultural-research body, which also advises, accredits, and funds these institutions. 

Despite not giving them a tight timeline, the universities are planning to unveil the new courses by the next academic session, with postgraduate and research offerings to follow later. The University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, and the Punjab Agricultural University, for instance, are planning to launch their undergraduate courses in natural farming by July, The Ken has learnt. 

And the timing to launch is, in fact, proving favourable for universities which admit nearly 50,000 students annually. In the past five years, agri-input companies—that employ many of these graduates—have been leaning more towards natural products. 

We need to rationalise the use of agrochemicals. Currently, people are using double or triple quantities of the recommended use of fertilisers, especially in UP or Punjab. The soil health here is really bad

Kamlesh Saxena, a former executive at Rallis India

He expects the natural-farming industry inputs to grow by at least 10–15% every year. 

In India, agriculture is still the largest employer, accounting for nearly half the labour force, and contributing over 17% to the GDP, as per the Economic Survey 2024–25. However, of the 55% of India’s land that is agricultural, just a little over 4% is used for organic farming, as of March 2023.

Relying on traditional methods, natural farming uses low inputs and natural products like cow dung, crop residues, green leaves, and botanical concoctions such as neem, chilli, etc.