Andhra Pradesh Community-Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) is a state-wide agro- ecological transformation of the farming practices of its 6 million farmers over 6 million hectares and 50 million consumers.

The study is the first of its kind to assess the true costs and benefits of natural farming against other counterfactual farming methods, by measuring all major economic, social, and health impacts. [...] The research used The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food Systems (TEEBAgriFood) framework: a holistic approach to comprehensively examine food systems and systematically identify links between agricultural practices and human well-being, so that appropriate policy responses can be developed and adapted globally. [...] This study compared the impacts of APCNF with three other farming systems in Andhra Pradesh: chemical farming in the Godavari delta region, Economic Impacts rainfed farming in the semi-arid region, and low- • Crop diversity was higher on APCNF farms: an input tribal farming in the mountain region. [...] than on counterfactual farms, the higher costs for • The results show that smaller farms had higher farmers, communities and the environment associated social capital scores than larger farms, suggesting with counterfactual farming (loss of work hours, poorer that smallholder farmers are important to health and poorer soils) meant that APCNF actually developing social capital within communities. [...] • APCNF farms had greater social capital than • Using True Cost Accounting and the TEEBAgriFood non-APCNF farms, likely due to the greater framework highlighted the economic, social and human networking and mutual support.