New Delhi: The Central government has launched Khet Bachaao Abhiyaan (KBA)-Rabi 2026, a nationwide campaign running from October 22 to November 30 aimed at promoting soil health, balanced fertiliser uses and sustainable agriculture, with a target outreach of around 50 lakh farmers across 700 districts and 50,000 villages, an official factsheet said on Monday.
The campaign seeks to address concerns including imbalanced nutrient application, declining soil organic matter, rising cultivation costs and degradation of natural resources while encouraging natural farming, water conservation and efficient resource use.
Its integrated approach combines farmer awareness, capacity building, field demonstrations and digital outreach to promote improved farming practices.
The campaign envisages 4,150 teams involving KVKs and ATMA, supported by over 12,000 scientists and ATMA functionaries. The initiative seeks to conduct 50,000 field demonstrations and 11,750 structured training sessions.
With an intended participation of 20 farmers per demonstration, the initiative targets an estimated outreach of 10 lakh farmers.
The campaign also projects a social media outreach of 1.5 crore farmers, with an envisaged expansion of overall digital outreach to 2.5 crore.
States and Union Territories have been instructed to prioritise 100 high fertiliser-consuming districts to strengthen outreach and promote balanced nutrient management.
With over 46 per cent of India’s workforce engaged in agriculture and allied activities, soil health influences food systems and economic stability. Healthy soils support higher crop yields and reduce dependence on external inputs.
Each of the 950 ICAR institute teams is assigned three village visits per week, while the 700 KVK teams are expected to undertake four visits per week and each visit targets the participation of 100 farmers.
Over a five-week period, the campaign envisages 5,650 awareness programmes, with an estimated outreach of 28.25 lakh farmers.
(IANS)
