India’s agroecology programme, ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’, delivers biodiversity and economic benefits without lowering yields

Abstract The Global Biodiversity Framework promotes agroecological farming approaches 1 , yet rigorous system-wide evaluations of agroecological programmes are urgently needed to balance the intertwined but partially competing Sustainable Development Goals of curbing food insecurity, improving human well-being and tackling biodiversity loss. Here we focus on the largest agroecological transition globally—the 64,000 km 2 government-incentivized zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) programme in India—to co-analyse socio-economic and biodiversity impacts. ZBNF more than doubled farmers’ economic profits and maintained comparable crop yields. Bird biodiversity outcomes were improved, with the densities of bird species and functional guilds involved in pest control and seed dispersal increasing; however, natural forests remain essential to sustaining populations of forest-specialized species. Trade-offs between bird densities and landscape-scale yields and profit were substantially less pronounced in ZBNF than in conventional, agrichemical-based farming systems, underscoring the benefits of agroecological interventions with aligned protection of natural ecosystems.