Advances and insights into natural farming for sustainable horticultural production

Feeding a rapidly growing global population has been a major challenge since independence. Although high-yielding farming practices have ensured food abundance, they have also contributed to environmental degradation, soil health decline, and biodiversity loss. Natural farming, a chemical-free approach rooted in traditional Indian agriculture and strengthened by contemporary ecological principles, offers a sustainable alternative. It is an agroecology-based system that integrates crops, trees, and livestock to promote functional biodiversity, enhance soil fertility, and reduce reliance on synthetic inputs. Core practices include biomass mulching, application of cow dung-urine formulations, soil aeration, and on-farm biomass recycling, thereby lowering input costs and enhancing rural livelihoods. In the horticulture sector, natural farming addresses challenges such as high production costs, pest pressures, and soil degradation, while aligning productivity with environmental sustainability. Mixed farming systems—such as crop-livestock, crop-forestry, crop-horticulture, fish-pig, fish-duck, and paddy-fish—further strengthen the benefits by improving resource-use efficiency, diversifying income, and reducing production risks. These integrated approaches enhance nutrient cycling, resilience to climatic variability, and profitability. This review synthesizes current knowledge on natural farming practices in horticultural crop production, highlighting their potential to improve farm productivity, reduce environmental impacts, and contribute to sustainable agricultural development.