Khet Bachaao Abhiyaan targets 50 lakh farmers across 700 districts

By Daniel Okafor

India’s Central Government has launched Khet Bachaao Abhiyaan (KBA)-Rabi 2026, a nationwide campaign running from October 22 to November 30 with a target of around 50 lakh (5 million) farmers across 700 districts and 50,000 villages.

An official factsheet said on Monday that the campaign will combine farmer awareness, capacity building, field demonstrations and digital outreach to promote soil health, balanced fertiliser use and sustainable agriculture.

What is the campaign trying to change?

The programme seeks to address four pressures identified in the factsheet:

• Imbalanced nutrient application.
• Declining soil organic matter.
• Rising cultivation costs.
• Degradation of natural resources.

The campaign also calls for natural farming, water conservation and more efficient resource use. The factsheet describes its central objective as “soil health, balanced fertiliser uses and sustainable agriculture”. For growers, that links purchased-input decisions with the condition of the soil resource itself, rather than treating fertiliser volume as the only measure of good management.

How many demonstrations and training sessions are planned?

The campaign envisages 4,150 teams involving Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) personnel, supported by more than 12,000 scientists and ATMA functionaries. Their workload is substantial:

• 50,000 field demonstrations.
• 11,750 structured training sessions.
• An intended 20 farmers per demonstration, producing an estimated outreach of 10 lakh (1 million) farmers.

The estimated 10 lakh farmers reached through demonstrations would be roughly one-fifth of the 50 lakh campaign target. That separates the intensive field programme from the wider awareness effort. Demonstrations provide a place to show practices, while training and communication extend the message to farmers who may not attend a plot visit.

How will teams and digital channels reach farmers?

Each of the 950 Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institute teams has been assigned three village visits per week. The field deployment has two distinct tempos:

• The 950 ICAR teams are assigned three village visits per week.
• The 700 KVK teams are expected to undertake four visits per week.
• Each visit targets participation by 100 farmers.

Across the five-week period, the campaign plans 5,650 awareness programmes, with estimated outreach of 28.25 lakh farmers. That schedule is the field backbone of the October 22-November 30 window.

Digital communication is expected to reach 1.5 crore (15 million) farmers through social media, with overall digital outreach envisaged at 2.5 crore (25 million). Those are projections, not confirmed attendance. The factsheet does not disclose overlap among social-media users, awareness participants and demonstration attendees, so the figures should not be added together as a unique-farmer total.

Which districts come first?

States and Union Territories have been instructed to prioritise 100 high fertiliser-consuming districts to strengthen outreach and promote “balanced nutrient management”. This gives the campaign a clear first filter: direct attention toward districts where fertiliser use is already intensive and the case for better nutrient balance is most immediate.

The campaign brief does not name the 100 priority districts or provide consumption totals. Farmers will therefore need state and Union Territory notifications to identify where the first village visits, demonstrations and training sessions will take place.

Why does soil health matter to farm economics?

More than 46 per cent of India’s workforce is engaged in agriculture and allied activities, according to the factsheet, which links soil health to food systems and economic stability. It also states that healthy soils support higher crop yields and reduce dependence on external inputs.

That is both a yield argument and a cost argument. A farmer evaluating the campaign’s recommendations has to weigh improved soil performance against purchased-input needs while also considering water conservation, natural farming and resource efficiency. The aim is better farming decisions, not simply more fertiliser application.

What should farmers watch next?

Farmers should watch for local KVK and ATMA schedules covering village visits, demonstrations and training, especially in the 100 priority districts. The five-week campaign runs to November 30; the clearest test will be actual participation in the 50,000 demonstrations and 11,750 training sessions, rather than the larger projected digital audience.

Before November 30, farmers can use those local sessions to judge which recommended practices fit their soils, input costs and water constraints.