International Journal of Environment and Climate Change

Natural farming brings renewed attention to biological soil management, local resource recycling and reduced dependence on purchased inputs, but its water-conservation claims require clearer hydrological interpretation. This critical narrative review examines evidence available through 27 June 2026, distinguishing evaluations of explicitly identified natural-farming systems from research on potentially transferable practices. Scholarly records, primary studies, evidence syntheses and authoritative irrigation guidance were assessed for treatment definition, comparator quality, measurement validity, temporal coverage and scale of inference. Recent Indian studies support the possibility of maintaining yields, improving selected soil properties and reducing production costs, although responses differ among crops and environments. These findings do not establish a general reduction in seasonal evapotranspiration or basin-scale water depletion. The strongest transferable evidence concerns surface residue management, context-sensitive irrigation scheduling and the integration of soil cover with controlled water delivery. Living cover can instead reduce water available to subsequent crops in dry environments, while increased soil carbon does not translate uniformly into large increases in plant-available storage. Microbial preparations have plausible biological functions, but their independent contribution to irrigation savings remains insufficiently resolved. Drip systems, buried pitchers, alternate wetting and drying in rice, and sensor-based scheduling offer distinct opportunities, subject to nutrient supply, salinity, maintenance and affordability constraints. Greater irrigation productivity may coexist with unchanged or increased total water consumption when farmers expand cropped area or intensify production. An integrated assessment therefore needs to separate soil condition, crop performance, farm withdrawals and catchment depletion rather than treating them as interchangeable benefits. Priority research should combine multi-season natural-farming comparisons, component experiments, measured water balances and implementation analysis. Natural farming is best understood as a context-dependent platform for improving water stewardship, not as an intrinsically water-saving label or a substitute for hydrological accounting.