Khet Bachao Abhiyan Launched Nationwide from Taraori, Karnal

Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the nationwide Khet Bachao Abhiyan on 22 October 2026 from Taraori, a historic town in Karnal district of Haryana. Farmers, scientists and officials joined from Krishi Vigyan Kendras and farm institutions across the country through a virtual link. The campaign will run in villages everywhere from 22 October to 30 November 2026, with scientists asked to step out of laboratories and offices and hold village meetings on soil health.

The warning behind the campaign

The Minister said that if the lopsided use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides is not checked, the soil will one day refuse to grow a crop and the human body will turn into a home for disease. Food is treated as divine in Indian scriptures, he said, so an impure harvest puts human well-being itself at risk. The fight, he added, is not only for the soil but for the farmer and the eater alike, which is why the campaign is summed up in the appeal to save the human being along with the field.

Three practical steps for farmers

• Read the Soil Health Card on a mobile phone and apply only the nutrient the field is short of, in a measured quantity.
• Break the endless paddy and wheat cycle with pulses such as chickpea, lentil and pigeon pea, whose roots fix nitrogen naturally.
• Take up natural farming on at least half an acre using Beejamrit and Ghanjeevamrit made from cow dung, cow urine and soil gathered from under trees.

Fertiliser subsidy and prices

Despite costlier imports, he said, the government carries a fertiliser subsidy of more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore so that a bag of urea still costs Rs 266 and a bag of DAP Rs 1,350. Cheap fertiliser, he cautioned, is no licence to empty four bags of urea into a field, since needless application wastes money and poisons the land, much as medicine taken without illness harms a healthy person. Green ammonia, he said, will take India towards self-reliance in fertiliser manufacture. He also called burning crop residue self-defeating, because it destroys friendly insects and earthworms along with the soil's microbial life.

Housing approval for Haryana

Wearing his Rural Development hat, the Minister handed Haryana Agriculture Minister Shyam Singh Rana a sanction letter of Rs 1,343.06 crore for 28,422 permanent houses in the state under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin. Indian Council of Agricultural Research Director General and Department of Agricultural Research and Education Secretary Mangi Lal Jat and Haryana Additional Chief Secretary for Agriculture Vijendra Kumar attended, a booklet on the campaign was released, and farmers took a collective pledge to use fertiliser in balance and stop stubble fires.