Vijayawada: As weather experts warn of El Niño's potential impact on agriculture and global uncertainties raise concerns over fertilizer and agrochemical availability, Andhra Pradesh's natural farming movement has earned international recognition on a world stage.
APCNF Wins Prestigious Food Planet Prize
The Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme has won the 2026 Food Planet Prize, an international award recognizing initiatives capable of transforming global food systems while reducing environmental impact. The award, presented by the Curt Bergfors Foundation in Båstad, Sweden, carries a prize of $1.5 million (around ₹14 crore).
The Curt Bergfors Foundation announced APCNF as the winner out of four finalists. The other shortlisted organizations—Conscious Kitchen (United States), NoPalm Ingredients (Netherlands), and Savanna Institute (United States)—received recognition grants of $1.5 lakh each.
Significant Milestone for Andhra Pradesh
The recognition marks a significant milestone for a state once among India's largest consumers of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Today, nearly 18 lakh farmers across Andhra Pradesh have adopted natural farming practices, making it one of the world's largest agroecological transitions. The movement traces its roots to 2016 when the Andhra Pradesh government launched the natural farming initiative through Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS).
Established as a state-supported organization to promote sustainable agriculture, RySS works with women's self-help groups, village-level community resource persons, and farmer trainers. Over the past decade, it has built a vast grassroots network spanning more than 8,000 villages and involving over 10,000 trained community resource persons, many of them women.
Representation and Recognition
Representing Andhra Pradesh at the award ceremony were special chief secretary (agriculture) B Rajasekhar and RySS executive vice-chairman T Vijay Kumar. The Curt Bergfors Foundation selected APCNF, citing its success in helping small and marginal farmers reduce dependence on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides while improving resilience to climate-related challenges.
Agriculture minister K Atchannaidu congratulated the farmers, women's self-help groups, community resource persons, RySS, and the agriculture department for securing the international honor. He noted that the model is now being studied and replicated in several Indian states as well as countries such as Zambia and Sri Lanka.
Use of Prize Money
Officials said the prize money will be used to establish additional demonstration sites, strengthen research collaborations, develop implementation toolkits, support farmer-led research, and expand training programs. With global attention now focused on Andhra Pradesh's experiment in natural farming, the state's agricultural model has emerged as a subject of interest far beyond India's borders.
