Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, launched the Khet Bachao Abhiyan (Save the Farm Campaign) on 1 June 2026 from Ramsiya village in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh. The month-long nationwide campaign, running from June 1 to June 30, is built around the central message of saving the soil, saving farming, and saving farmers. It brings together agricultural scientists, farm extension workers, and local representatives to carry that message directly to villages across the country.
The Background: India’s Soil Crisis
Indian agriculture is confronting a slow but serious crisis beneath the surface. Approximately 97.85 million hectares, or nearly 30% of India’s total geographical area, was undergoing land degradation as of 2018-19, according to the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas published by the Space Applications Centre. The country loses an estimated 5.3 billion tonnes of topsoil every year due to water and wind erosion, stripping away precious nutrients that took centuries to accumulate.
A large part of the damage traces back to how fertilizers have been used. Decades of heavy reliance on urea, often encouraged by price subsidies, has thrown the balance of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in the soil out of alignment. When farmers apply more urea than crops can absorb, the excess leaches into groundwater or escapes as greenhouse gases, degrading both the land and the environment. Meanwhile, the overuse of chemical fertilizers has suppressed the natural microbial activity in the soil, reducing its long-term fertility.
The Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, where the campaign was formally launched, is itself a significant agricultural region. Situated in the Vindhya Plateau agro-climatic zone, the district spans roughly 8,395 sq. km and is known for crops such as soybean, wheat, gram, and pigeon pea. Raisen is also notable for its Basmati rice, designated under the government’s One District One Product (ODOP) scheme. The choice of Raisen as the launch site places the campaign squarely in a working agricultural heartland rather than a ceremonial venue.
What Is the Khet Bachao Abhiyan?
The Khet Bachao Abhiyan is a people-centred outreach and awareness campaign run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. It is not a new funding scheme or a standalone policy. Instead, it functions as a field-level mobilisation drive designed to bring scientific guidance on soil care and sustainable farming directly to farmers at the village level. Agricultural scientists from Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), which are district-level farm science centres managed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), are visiting villages across all states to conduct training programmes, field demonstrations, and awareness sessions.
The first KVK was established in 1974 at Puducherry, and as of 2025 there are approximately 731 KVKs functioning across the country under 11 Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARIs). These centres serve as the operational backbone of the campaign, translating scientific recommendations into practical, locally relevant advice that farmers can act on immediately. During the campaign period, representatives from agricultural universities and elected panchayat members are also participating in this outreach, giving the initiative both technical credibility and community reach.
As of the first week of June 2026, the campaign had already reached close to 9.42 lakh farmers through thousands of awareness and training programmes held across India.
Four Focus Areas of the Campaign
The Khet Bachao Abhiyan is structured around four key areas of intervention:
| Focus Area | What It Involves |
|---|---|
| Balanced Fertilizer Use | Encouraging farmers to apply fertilizers based on Soil Health Card recommendations rather than habit or guess, reducing over-application of urea and DAP |
| Soil Health Management | Promoting natural farming techniques, green manuring, and bio-fertilizers to restore soil organic matter and microbial life |
| Water and Crop Management | Training farmers in modern techniques such as laser levelling, drip irrigation, and scientifically timed sowing to improve water-use efficiency |
| Awareness on Input Quality | Educating farmers on how to identify counterfeit seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, protecting them from economic losses and soil damage caused by spurious inputs |
The Soil Health Card: The Core Tool of the Campaign
At the heart of the Khet Bachao Abhiyan is the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme, launched by the government on 19 February 2015 in Suratgarh, Rajasthan. The scheme operates under the motto “Swasth Dharaa, Khet Haraa” (Healthy Earth, Green Farm). Under the scheme, each farmer receives a card containing a report on the nutrient status of their soil, tested against 12 parameters, along with specific recommendations on which fertilizers to apply and in what quantities.
The scheme was designed to shift farmers away from blanket fertilizer application towards a soil test-based approach. When a farmer knows exactly what their soil lacks, they can add only what is needed, which cuts input costs and prevents the chemical overload that depletes soil health over time. As of 2022-23, the SHC scheme has been integrated into the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY) as a dedicated component titled “Soil Health and Fertility.” PM-RKVY, originally launched in 2007, is a major Centrally Sponsored Scheme that supports agricultural growth through decentralised, state-level project planning. The central government allocated Rs 7,553 crore to PM-RKVY for 2024-25.
The campaign also promotes complementary practices such as green manuring, where nitrogen-fixing plants are grown and then ploughed back into the soil, and the use of bio-fertilizers that introduce beneficial microorganisms capable of naturally enriching soil nutrients. This reduces dependence on subsidised chemical fertilizers, an objective also shared by the PM-PRANAM scheme (Pradhan Mantri Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother Earth), which incentivises states to reduce their chemical fertilizer consumption by linking subsidy savings to grants for sustainable farming infrastructure.
Connecting Farmers to Government Support Schemes
A significant operational goal of the Khet Bachao Abhiyan is ensuring that farmers are not only made aware of good farming practices but are also connected to the financial safety nets and credit facilities the government offers. Many farmers, particularly in remote areas, remain unaware of or are unable to access schemes they are entitled to. The campaign uses its village-level outreach to bridge this gap.
Three schemes are specifically being highlighted during the campaign. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), launched in February 2019, provides Rs 6,000 per year directly into the bank accounts of eligible farmer families in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each. Over 11 crore farmers have benefited from the scheme since its inception. The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme offers farmers a revolving credit facility to meet short-term crop cultivation needs at concessional interest rates, with loans up to Rs 3 lakh available at 7% per annum under the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme, further reducible to 4% for prompt repayment. The campaign also urges farmers to enrol in crop insurance to shield their livelihoods from weather shocks and crop failure.
The monitoring of the campaign’s progress is being done through district-level action plans and a dashboard-based tracking system that allows the Ministry to watch real-time progress, flag gaps in outreach, and ensure accountability at the ground level.
Climate Resilience and the Bigger Policy Picture
The climate dimension of the Khet Bachao Abhiyan is particularly significant. Climate projections for India’s major crops are sobering: wheat yields could fall by approximately 19% by 2050 and up to 40% by 2080, while rainfed rice yields may decline by around 20% by 2050 if farming systems do not adapt. These are not distant threats. Erratic monsoons, prolonged dry spells, and heat stress during critical crop growth stages are already affecting harvests in several states each year.
The campaign addresses this by providing farmers with region-specific, weather-based advisories and promoting crop varieties and farming techniques suited to local agro-climatic conditions. Farmers are being guided to diversify their cropping patterns, adopt water-saving irrigation methods, and schedule their sowing based on scientific calendars rather than tradition alone. Healthier soil, with better organic content and microbial activity, is also inherently more resilient to both drought and flooding, as it retains moisture better during dry spells and absorbs excess water more effectively during heavy rain.
At the policy level, the Khet Bachao Abhiyan is consistent with the goals of the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of the eight missions under India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), which was launched in 2008. The NMSA focuses on soil health management, water use efficiency, integrated farming systems, and resource conservation to make Indian agriculture more resilient to climate variability. The ICAR also runs the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, which develops and field-tests technologies specifically for districts vulnerable to floods, droughts, and extreme heat.
Together, these institutional frameworks provide the long-term scientific and policy scaffolding within which the Khet Bachao Abhiyan operates, making the campaign part of a coordinated national effort rather than a standalone event.
Key Takeaways
- The Khet Bachao Abhiyan (Save the Farm Campaign) was launched by Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on 1 June 2026 from Ramsiya village, Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, and runs till 30 June 2026.
- The campaign is a nationwide outreach initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, implemented through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) managed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), with approximately 731 KVKs across India.
- India loses an estimated 5.3 billion tonnes of topsoil annually to erosion, and about 97.85 million hectares (nearly 30% of total land area) were under degradation as of 2018-19.
- The Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme, launched on 19 February 2015 in Suratgarh, Rajasthan, under the motto “Swasth Dharaa, Khet Haraa”, is the central tool of the Khet Bachao Abhiyan, providing soil test-based fertilizer recommendations across 12 parameters.
- The campaign promotes convergence of farmer welfare schemes including PM-KISAN (Rs 6,000/year for eligible farmers), the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme (crop loans at 7% per annum, reducible to 4% for prompt repayment), and crop insurance programmes.
- The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) launched in 2008, provides the overarching policy framework for climate-resilient agriculture in India.
