Project lead: Dr. Jonathan Sanderman
Andhra Pradesh’s Community-Managed Natural Farming (CMNF) program is one of the largest experiments in agroecology in the world and holds lessons for regenerative agriculture work worldwide. CMNF, previously referred to as zero budget natural farming, is a method of regenerative agriculture that is promoted as a key initiative for improving human, soil, and environmental health, climate resilience and mitigation, and rural economic development. Sound, independent science is critical to understand the promise and limitations of CMNF. This project includes a five-year-long longitudinal impact assessment comparing CMNF and conventional farming across three sustainability dimensions, as well as a climate risk assessment for agriculture in Andhra Pradesh (India), and efforts to develop and disseminate replicable approaches for scaling up CMNF. This work has the potential to demonstrate the effectiveness of natural farming, and significantly influence the growth and adoption of regenerative agriculture across the globe.