Photo: Rice fields in Japan. © 2018 Delena Norris-Tull
Natural Farming
Masanobu Fukuoka, author of The One-Straw Revolution, farmed for many years in Japan, raising rice, grains, and citrus crops. He began his career as a plant pathologist. He died at age 95, in 2008. Early in his life, he recognized that traditional farming methods were damaging the land. He began making close observations of how plants interact and grow in nature. He experimented with growing various crops within an orange orchard. He called his techniques natural farming. His approach involves letting go of traditional models of farming and paying attention to how plants grow naturally.
In his highly productive fields, he did not need to plow the fields or use fertilizers. He used crop rotation and inter-cropping, for example growing rice within winter grains, and using crops of clover and straw to mulch the fields. And he grew vegetables beneath orange trees. He did not use pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or manures. He did not till the fields. He had minimal problems with weeds or pests. In an interview with Larry Korn for Mother Earth News in 1982, he commented, “As the condition of the soil stabilized over time and the fields returned to their natural state, my crop output began to rise steadily. I never noticed any dramatic changes, but eventually I found that I could grow rice without plowing or flooding the field all summer long, and still produce as much as the other farmers did with all their machinery and chemicals . . . sometimes more. My production has now stabilized at about 1,300 pounds, or 22 bushels, per quarter-acre for both winter grain and rice. That is close to the highest in Japan!”
Regarding invasive plants, he said,” Instead of relying on herbicides or mechanical cultivation to control weeds, I've always used legumes and other cover crops to limit the spread of the less helpful plants. I also throw straw on the fields as a mulch that will both discourage weeds and let the soil retain enough moisture to germinate seeds in the autumn dry season…. 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 all provide effective weed control in my fields.”
Reference:
Links to additional Agricultural Best Practices:
Links to additional Innovative Solutions:
Natural Farming
Masanobu Fukuoka, author of The One-Straw Revolution, farmed for many years in Japan, raising rice, grains, and citrus crops. He began his career as a plant pathologist. He died at age 95, in 2008. Early in his life, he recognized that traditional farming methods were damaging the land. He began making close observations of how plants interact and grow in nature. He experimented with growing various crops within an orange orchard. He called his techniques natural farming. His approach involves letting go of traditional models of farming and paying attention to how plants grow naturally.
In his highly productive fields, he did not need to plow the fields or use fertilizers. He used crop rotation and inter-cropping, for example growing rice within winter grains, and using crops of clover and straw to mulch the fields. And he grew vegetables beneath orange trees. He did not use pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or manures. He did not till the fields. He had minimal problems with weeds or pests. In an interview with Larry Korn for Mother Earth News in 1982, he commented, “As the condition of the soil stabilized over time and the fields returned to their natural state, my crop output began to rise steadily. I never noticed any dramatic changes, but eventually I found that I could grow rice without plowing or flooding the field all summer long, and still produce as much as the other farmers did with all their machinery and chemicals . . . sometimes more. My production has now stabilized at about 1,300 pounds, or 22 bushels, per quarter-acre for both winter grain and rice. That is close to the highest in Japan!”
Regarding invasive plants, he said,” Instead of relying on herbicides or mechanical cultivation to control weeds, I've always used legumes and other cover crops to limit the spread of the less helpful plants. I also throw straw on the fields as a mulch that will both discourage weeds and let the soil retain enough moisture to germinate seeds in the autumn dry season…. 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 all provide effective weed control in my fields.”
Reference:
- Fukuoka, M. (2009). The one-straw revolution: An introduction to natural farming. NY: New York Review of Books.
Links to additional Agricultural Best Practices:
- Ecologically based Successional Management
- Perennial Crops, Intercropping, beneficial insects
- Soil Solarization
- Permaculture
- Organic Farming
- Embedding Natural Habitats
- Conservation Tillage
- Crop Rotation
- Water Use Practices
- Tree Planting: Pros & Cons
Links to additional Innovative Solutions: