This research work is mainly focused on comparative economic analysis of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) for Kharif Groundnut under Central Dry Zone of Karnataka. The purpose of conducting the study is to examine the cost of cultivation for ZBNF with other treatments. This is mainly due to farmers are facing high cost of cultivation by practicing conventional farming as it is highly depends on external inputs. ZBNF is low cost technology where, farming is practiced by using jeevamrutha, beejamrutha, mulching and whapsa etc. The Groundnut experiment was conducted at ZAHRS, Babbur Farm, Hiriyur during Kharif 2019-20 in order to estimate economics for different treatments. Each treatment was having different input usage. For calculating economics of each treatment, conventional cost of cultivation method was followed (i.e. calculation of Variable cost, Fixed cost, Gross returns, Net returns and B:C).The results of economic analysis revealed that the per hectare yield (17.46 q/ha) total cost ( 53,019), gross returns ( 88,871), net returns ( 35,852) and B:C (1.68) were found to be highest in RPP among all treatments i.e. ZBNF, OPS and Control. The cost of cultivation of ZBNF 22.55 per cent lesser than RPP. The B:C ratio was found to be more in ZBNF (1.66) than OPS (1.58).This is due to highest cost for purchase of excess quantity of FYM in case of OPS. It is concluded from the study that RPP was best treatment among all treatments. This is due to highest yield, net returns and B:C was found in RPP treatment  as compared to all treatments. In the economic point of view, there was reduction in total cost in case of ZBNF with fewer yields as compared to RPP.

Drought is a natural disaster due to less precipitation than the normal that can occur irrespective of climate regimes. Impact assessment of drought and monitoring are the most important mitigation stratregies to combat the drought effects. As the single index cannot assess all the drought conditions, in the present study multi-variate indices approach has been used to assess and monitor drought. Five indices were assessed using precipitation data such as deciles index (DI), percent normal (PN), China-Z index (CZI), Z-Score index (ZSI) and standardized precipitation index (SPI). Monthly total precipitation data was used to calculate drought events occurred during the period 1967–2017 in different talukas of Chitradurga district of Karnataka, India. The assessment revealed that SPI, CZI and ZSI performance was similar in identifying drought. PN was very much responsive for the rainfall events that occurred during the particular year however, it exhibited variations in dry conditions. DI was not that much satisfactory in identifying drought conditions. Among the five indices assessed, SPI seems to be the best indicator to predict the drought onset than the other four drought indices. Therefore SPI can be recommended for assessing and monitoring the drought in Chitradurga district of Karnataka, India.

A field experiment was carried out during summer 2019 and 2020 at Zonal Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station, Hiriyur University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga to study the influence of natural farming practices on growth, yield attributes and yield of ground nut in black soils. Pooled analysis of two years revealed that recommended dose of fertilizer significantly recorded higher pod (1969 kg ha-1), kernel (1516 kg ha-1) and haulm (3699 kg ha-1) yield as compared to other nutrient management practices. Similar trend was noticed in other yield parameters. Significantly higher nutrient uptake was observed in treatment receiving recommended package of practice i.e., nitrogen (101.75 kg ha-1), phosphorus (28.41 kg ha-1) and potassium (94.54 kg ha-1), respectively. However, the natural farming treatment receiving significantly recorded higher gross returns (Rs. 1,62,458 ha-1), net returns (Rs.1,14,063) and B:C ratio (3.36) as compared to other nutrient management practices. In 2019 and 2020 the same treatment recorded significantly higher growth, yield parameters and economics.

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