The Fukuoka Farming Website Interpreting Masanobu Fukuoka's Writings |
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Masanobu Fukuoka, a guiding light of natural farming, was, first and foremost, a farmer. His farm
profitably produced rice, barley, fruits and vegetables for market in addition to feeding his
family. Even though he used a method that required no tilling, no weeding, no chemical or
"imported" fertilizers, no composting, and no pesticides, he was able to produce yields comparable
to, and sometimes better than, his neighbors for more than forty years. And he did it consistently
at a lower cost in labor and materials.
"Imported" as it is used above means buying and bringing into his farm fertilizers of any kind.
He did, however, make extensive use of chicken manure that was produced on his farm.
The following is the best distillation, interpretation and summary of Fukuoka's teaching and
principles that I, and a few other people who have been actively trying to fully understand and
apply his methods have come up with so far.
The word "nature" is used here to mean the natural processes of
the world around us. It does not refer to some sort of omniscient and self-aware entity.
To verify the accuracy of this document, learn details that are not included in this document and
website, and deepen your understanding of what Fukuoka has to say, you are urged to read what
Fukuoka says himself. Not just in "The One-Straw Revolution", but especially in his "how-to"
farming manual, "The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy".
If you have trouble finding those books, look in the Resources section for book dealers who carry the Indian
reprints of his otherwise out-of-print books. They cost about $20US each.
For many people, the biggest problem with reading Fukuoka is that he weaves Buddhist philosophy through
all of his books is such a way that it almost feels like you have to become Buddhist to use his methods.
But as he points out in the Plowboy interview, his teachings are not necessarily about religion, they are
about farming. Farming is a path he has chosen to work toward personal development and perfection
(enlightenment), but his teachings are aimed at, and are very much about, communicating to farmers a
practical and more beneficial way to farm than what is currently being practiced. Beneficial
economically as well as ecologically.
The essence, to me, of what Fukuoka is saying is that we need to form a collaborative relationship
with nature, not a dominating one. We need to understand that it is nature which actually creates
life, not humans. That it is nature which ultimately decides what will, or will not, grow.
"Many people think that when we practice agriculture, nature is helping us in our efforts to grow food. This is an exclusively human-centered viewpoint... we should instead, realize that we are receiving that which nature decides to give us. A farmer does not grow something in the sense that he or she creates it. That human is only a small part of the whole process by which nature expresses its being. The farmer has very little influence over that process... other than being there and doing his or her small part."
In a collaborative relationship you can tell nature what you hope it will give you, but you cannot
tell nature what it MUST give you. A simple example of this is trying to grow a sunflower,
a plant that can grow in remarkably poor soil but needs plenty of sunshine. Planting a sunflower
seed in a sunny location that has at least minimally fertile soil is a collaboration with nature.
Planting a sunflower seed indoors using rock wool and hydroponic nutrients instead of fertile soil,
and electric lights instead of sunlight, is domination of nature. In both cases you are likely to
get a sunflower, but at what cost and how sustainably?
Fukuoka emphasizes that the place to start, and continue to focus on, is maintaining a natural,
or "wild" soil. Again, from the Plowboy interview:
The Four Principles"People often think, in their arrogance and ignorance, that nature needs their assistance to carry on. Well, the truth is that nature actually does much better without such "help" from humans! Once a field is healthy and working on its own, natural — or "noninterference" — agriculture becomes a real possibility. However, as my orange grove demonstrated, such a condition can't be initiated suddenly. In Japan and other agricultural countries, the land has been plowed by machines for decades... and before that it was turned by cows and horses. In fields such as those, you wouldn't have very good results in the beginning if you simply stopped cultivating the earth and adopted a do-nothing altitude. The soil must first be allowed to rehabilitate itself. Fertility can then be maintained by surface mulch and straw that break down into the soil."
"First of all, I operate, under four firm principles. The first is NO TILLING... that is, no turning or plowing of the soil. Instead, I let the earth cultivate itself by means of the penetration of plant roots and the digging activity of micro organisms, earthworms, and small animals."
This is, I believe, his most important principle. Cultivation not only destroys the soil's
structure by grinding it into ever finer particles which are easier to compact and prevent
proper aeration, but also destroys many of the fertility-sustaining micro organism in the soil
by exposing them to too much aeration. Though it is not specifically mentioned, compaction of
the soil by walking on or driving equipment over it should be avoided for the same reasons.
It needs to be pointed out here that there are times when Fukuoka suggests using substantial
earthmoving to initially establish certain types of growing areas, but once that is done no
further tilling of any kind is done. One example of this is in establishing an orchard on a
forested slope. He says that after cutting down the trees you bury them in trenches along with
other coarse organic matter in order to create a fertile bed in which to plant the fruit trees.
Another example is to create permanent raised beds for growing annual crops such as vegetables,
herbs, and flowers by digging paths between the beds and putting the soil from the paths on top
of the bed area. But once this is done, no further tilling is ever done. The natural processes
described above are used to loosen and aerate the soil from then on.
"The second rule is NO CHEMICAL FERTILIZER, OR PREPARED COMPOST. I've found that you can actually drain the soil of essential nutrients by careless use of such dressings! Left alone, the earth maintains its own fertility, in accordance with the orderly cycle of plant and animal life."
Fukuoka does use a form of composting, but it is not created by the labor-intensive methods used in most other methods of farming. He uses a form of sheet composting by putting the straw and other crop residues on top of the soil after harvesting and allow it to protect the soil from compaction and erosion from rain while the material is incorporated into the soil. This follows the natural process of deposition and eventual decay into fertile soil. He also uses chicken manure on his rice and barley fields by direct application of the collected manure.
"The third guideline I follow is NO WEEDING, either by cultivation or by herbicides. Weeds play an important part in building soil fertility and in balancing the biological community... so I make it a practice to control - rather than eliminate — the weeds in my fields. Straw mulch, a ground cover of white clover interplanted with the crops, and temporary flooding provide effective weed control in my fields."
Much of the success of Fukuoka's method is based on a very effective interplanted crop rotation
timed to suppress unwanted plants while helping the soil regain whatever nutrients might have been
partially depleted by any given crop, and also raising the ability of the soil to retain water.
In his book, "The Natural Way of Farming", Fukuoka provides detailed crop rotation
diagrams and explanations for both warm and cool climates, and for both large-scale farming and
small-scale vegetable gardening. The diagrams show how to make the transition from chemical-based
agriculture to natural farming and gardening, and then how to maintain that process once the soil
has been restored to its natural, or "wild" state.
"The fourth principle of natural farming is NO PESTICIDES. As I've emphasized before, nature is in perfect balance when left alone. Of course, harmful insects and diseases are always present, but normally not to such an extent that poisonous chemicals are needed to correct the situation. The only sensible approach to disease and insect control, I think, is to grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment."
Somehow, I don't think this needs any further explanation.
--Larry Haftl
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