Sustainable Farming

Masanobu Fukuoka, in 'The Road Back to Nature':

I don't plow my fields, but I do sow clover. This is the easiest way there is to grow rice. With the arrival of spring, the clover grows thick and fast. I sow rice seed in this clover and later flood my field to weaken the clover and favor the rice. Then I drain the water and leave the field to itself.
...
A week or two before harvesting the rice, I take anywhere from about four to ten quarts of barley seed, place it in a basket, and scatter it over the field. This also takes about an hour. After the rice is harvested and threshed, I scatter the straw back over the field.
...
The straw and clover do more for the fertility of the soil than large tractors. So this is certainly not a primitive method of farming from the past. It may seem primitive if all you pay attention is the the word "no-till," but it is in fact a biological method of farming that uses plants and animals rather than heavy machinery. If you think of this as a means for raising soil fertility using microbes, as cultivation with plant roots, then it becomes the most advanced science.

(p217 and p223, 1987, Japan Publications Inc, New York*)

The goal of sustainable farming is not to farm in a primitive manner and be satisfied with low yields, but rather to get the highest possible yields with lowest energy and effort input, and to improve the local natural resources at the same time. To do this, we need to use natural components to create the most stable, productive, self managing systems and then avoid interfering with the natural processes.

* I will post an overview of 'The Road Back to Nature' soon. The excerpt above is quite atypical for the book, which, while certainly worth reading, primarily examines the philosophy of farming and modern lifestyles in Japan and Europe and America (with a healthy dose of 'get-off-my-lawn'!). Fukuoka's 'The Natural Way of Farming' is the one that has detailed information on natural farming techniques.

Also, when Fukuoka speaks of 'sowing' he means just scattering seeds on the field, rather than drilling them in the ground. The rice is also not transplanted from growing beds.

I've just created a presentation about sustainable farming. You can view and download the presentation here (.pdf, 4.13 MB). You can also download a version with smaller file size (.pdf, 2.73 MB, sans fancy background!). Let me know if you have any comments, suggestions, corrections, or questions. I'll be happy to share original presentation in .keynote or .ppt format, just drop me a line.

Also see: This presentation [.pdf] created by Himanshu Khatri of Udai, and this presentation [.ppt] created by Erin Runnels for Kansas State University. (Both of these explain Natural Farming techniques, whereas I have explored both Natural Farming and Permaculture.)

In 1988, Masanobu Fukuoka received the Ramon Magsaysay award*. The Magsaysay award website has an informative biography of Fukuoka that is certainly worth reading.
From the award citation:

"When you get right down to it, there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary," says FUKUOKA. He does not plow his fields, nor weed them by tillage or herbicides. He does not plant seeds in tidy rows but casts them randomly upon the ground. He uses no machines, no insecticides, and no chemical fertilizers or prepared compost; he strews his rice and barley fields with straw instead.

In FUKUOKA's rice and barley fields, sturdy grains share their habitat with white clover, insects, birds, and small animals. In his orchards, unpruned orange trees rise prolifically above a profusion of grasses, herbs, and vegetables. They all thrive together naturally.

FUKUOKA points out that his "do nothing" farming completely contradicts modern agricultural techniques. Yet his untidy farm yields grain and fruits just as abundantly as high-technology farms, often more so, and a rich mix of hearty vegetables besides. His method offers farmers extra leisure. It requires no expensive inputs. It creates no pollution. Moreover, it is profitable: FUKUOKA's chemical-free produce is highly prized by health-conscious consumers.

*A week ago, I posted abut P. Sainath, also a Magsaysay awardee.

In traditional and modern farming, pesticides and herbicides or manual weeding are a given. This is fighting life with death, and in a real world farm, practically the definition of a Sisyphean struggle.

In a conventional farm, the soil is tilled and fertilized, and between the plants and crop rows, left bare! It is only inevitable that whatever seeds that fall on this ground will germinate and grow vigorously. Inevitably, these will be seeds of non-crop plants. Pulling out weeds by the root only creates habitats for more weeds.

Insect infestations are also invited due to the monoculture on most farms - insects proliferate rapidly in the presence of the abundant food supply, and the variety of natural predators is also low due to the artificially non-diverse ecosystem. The use of insecticides kills all insects and spiders, creating an ecological vacuum where insect population explosion down the line in inevitable.

These toxic chemicals inevitably enter the food supply, persisting and accumulating in the human body over time. And of course, the monetary, energy, and labor costs of these chemicals are enormous.

Actively increasing the plant biodiversity on the farm with a large variety and types of plants, including nitrogen fixing ground cover, takes care of both of these problems. With a beneficial cover crop, the weeds are naturally out-competed, and the few that may to take hold serve to increase biodiversity. It is important to remember that weeds occupy completely different ecological niches from crops, and so don't usually compete with them for resources. Due to the diversity of plants and absence of poisonous chemicals, frogs, lizards, spiders, etc. thrive, and naturally control the insect population.

Thus, expensive, harmful, and labor intensive interventions are not necessary for controlling pests, and life can be controlled with life far more easily. In his own words, here is Fukuoka explaining why pesticides and weeding are unnecessary.

For small farmers in developing countries, the high cost of fertilizers and and uncertain price supports in the market result in increasing debt and poverty. Furthermore, chemical fertilizers are one of the most energy intensive inputs to modern agriculture. Extensive and inefficient use of fertilizers creates nutrient runoffs, with disastrous consequences for aquatic ecosystems. Ironically, while these chemicals are pumped into the farm, the natural waste products of a crop are removed and destroyed, taking away the essential nutrients accumulated in the biomass!

However, chemical fertilizers and even prepared compost are completely unnecessary. On a natural farm, a ground cover of white clover or other leguminous plants efficiently fixes nitrogen in the soil. Leguminous nitrogen fixing crops can also be taken concurrently with main grain crops, or once every few seasons. All the plant material except for produce is either left in the field or returned to the field after harvest, to decomposes naturally and return all the essential nutrients to the soil. This is supplemented with manure from chickens, ducks, humans etc, which provides essential nutrients and speeds up the decomposition of the plant matter.

Taking full advantage of natural systems, it is easy to get yields equal to those achievable through artificial fertilizers. Here is Fukuoka in his own words on the ill effects of artificial fertilizers and the natural way of fertilizing soil.

Sowing is one of the most labor, time, and equimpent intensive steps in agriculture, and particularly so for rice due to the transplanting practice. In natural farming, the costs of sowing are almost completely eliminated.

Seeds are sown underground mainly to protect them from birds and other pests. In the case of rice, the high density, submerged germination is meant to prevent weeds from out-competing the rice. However, this requires transplanting the young rice plants manually - an extremely labor and time intensive step.

On a natural farm, the presence of the continuous plant cover and straw holds weeds in check and hides the seeds from pests. For even more protection, seeds can be enclosed in clay pellets (similar to seed balls - more on this later). The seeds or clay pellets are simply broadcast by hand on to the field, resulting in tremendous labor and time savings, and requiring no equipments. Using this system, even rice has been grown successfully, without the need for transplanting.

In traditional and modern farming, the life-cycle of a crop requires many labor and/or energy intensive steps in the field, including tilling, sowing, spreading fertilizers, spraying pesticides, weeding multiple times, and finally harvesting. Labor requirements are even worse for rice due to the transplanting step, which requires many days of backbreaking labor.

In natural farming, all of these steps are virtually eliminated. Let's take a look at how tilling is replaced:

Tilling is done to for loosening the soil, mixing nutrients, and destroying weeds. In fact, tilled soil becomes compacted more easily, nutrients, and the top soil itself, are more likely to runoff in subsequent rains, and weeds get a better start in the newly tilled barren ground. Furthermore, as the organic material in the soil is exposed to air, it oxidizes rapidly, and releases large amounts of carbon dioxide.

In natural farming, since the soil is left completely undisturbed, these problems are avoided. Instead, the soil is loosened, aerated and mixed by worms and other creatures. The roots of crops and the few weeds are left in the ground, which also keep the soil loose, and increases the nutrient content of the soil. A permanent ground cover (usually of white clover), and the straw returned to the field suppresses the weeds, which in any case can not take hold as vigorously as when the soil is disturbed.

Thus, the no-tilling approach in natural farming eliminates the labor, equipment, and time costs of tilling, and continually increases soil fertility, reduces erosion, and holds weeds in check. Here's some more information about the reasoning behind no-till, and the benefits, in Fukuoka's own words.

Natural Farming was developed in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka between 1945-1975. A trained microbiologist and soil scientist, Fukuoka gave up his research job following increasing doubts about the wisdom of modern scientific method. Returning to the family farm, he set out to develop a minimalist farming system.

In it's final form, Fukuoka's approach consistently achieved yields equal to or better than modern farms by following four simple principles -

1. No Cultivation: The soil is not disturbed at any stage by ploughing or tilling.
2. No Fertilizer: Neither chemical fertilizers nor prepared compost is used.
3. No Weeding: Non-crop plants are not pulled out of the ground.
4. No Pesticides: Insects are controlled by natural predators.
   

On a natural farm, all straw and chaff is returned to the grain fields and allowed to naturally decompose. This returns essential nutrients to the field, continually increasing soil fertility. Without pesticides and herbicides, weeds and soil dwelling organisms loosen and aerate the undisturbed ground and increase its organic content. A variety of predators hold insect infestations in check.

For more information about natural farming, read this 1982 interview with Fukuoka, which also acts as an excellent summary of his book The One-Straw Revolution.


* "Do-Nothing" is the literal translation of 'Wu-wei', the Taoist concept of the acting in the natural manner; of appropriate, unforced action.

A natural farm is:

• a complex, self-regulating, designed ecosystem
• where a large variety of plants, animals, insects, birds and microorganisms are nurtured
  
• with minimal physical intervention
  
• and no chemical inputs
  
• to produce abundant food and other resources for human consumption
• while enriching the local natural resources.

Natural farming requires significantly less labor than traditional low resource agriculture, and none of the chemical fertilizers, pesticides and costly machinery necessary in modern commercial monoculture. Despite the low inputs, the yields of well-managed a natural farm consistently equal or better those of the best modern farms.

Does the high efficiency of natural farming sound like a fantasy? In fact, over the past few decades, natural farming approaches have been independently developed and demonstrated numerous times in many different environments. Fukuoka Farming and Permaculture are the most popular and best systematized.

On this blog, I will explore the small farm and ecosystem crises in the developing world, and how natural farming can provide solutions.

The time to act is now.