Natural farming for whom? Environmental justice and state-led chemical-free farming promotion in India

India's government has recently begun promoting ‘agroecological' agriculture through the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF). While NMNF is framed as a strategy to improve farmer incomes, health and nutrition, and environmental sustainability, little research has examined its justice implications. Drawing on qualitative and ethnographic research from two districts in eastern Madhya Pradesh, this paper analyzes NMNF through an environmental justice lens. We argue that promoting natural farming without material support risks moralizing farmers’ practices and producing new inequities. In our field sites, these dynamics further marginalize land-poor households. We conclude structural agrarian transformation is required for just agroecological transitions.