Natural Farming

Masanobu Fukuoka, originator of the Natural Farming method

Natural Farming is an approach to farming established by Masanobu Fukuoka (1913–2008), a Japanese farmer and philosopher who described his agricultural philosophy as shizen nōhō (自然農法^?) in Japanese.^[1] It is also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "Do-Nothing Farming". The title refers not to lack of labor, but to the avoidance of manufactured inputs and equipment.

The system exploits the complexity of living organisms that shape each particular ecosystem. Fukuoka saw farming not just as a means of producing food but as an aesthetic or spiritual approach to life,^[2] the ultimate goal of which was "the cultivation and perfection of human beings".^[3] He suggested that if farmers closely observed local conditions, they could benefit from them.^[4] Natural farming is a closed system demanding no outside inputs and mimics nature.^[5]

Fukuoka's ideas challenged common agricultural conventions core to modern agro-industries, instead promoting an ethical and environmental approach.^[6] Natural farming also differs from conventional organic farming.^[7] which Fukuoka considered to be another modern technique that disturbs the natural ecosystem.^[8]

Fukuoka claims that his approach prevents water contamination, biodiversity loss and soil erosion while still providing ample amounts of food.^[9]

Principles

The five principles of Natural Farming are that:^[10]

• avoid soil cultivation, plowing or tilling and the use of powered machines
• avoid prepared fertilizers, and of preparing compost
• practice minimal weed suppression with minimal disturbance
• avoid pesticides and herbicides
• avoid pruning of fruit trees^[11]

Though many of his plant varieties and practices relate specifically to Japan, and even to local conditions in subtropical western Shikoku, his philosophy and the governing principles of his farming systems have applied around the world. They are practised in different places and climates from Africa to the temperate northern hemisphere. In India, natural farming is often referred to as "Rishi Kheti".^[12][13]

Principally, natural farming minimises human labour or disturbance and adopts, as closely as practical, nature's reproduction of foods such as rice, barley, daikon or citrus in biodiverse agricultural ecosystems. Without plowing, seeds germinate well on the surface if natural conditions for each site meet the needs of the seeds planted there. Fukuoka used the presence of spiders in his fields as a key performance indicator of sustainability.

In the system, the ground always remains covered by weeds, white clover, alfalfa, herbaceous legumes, and sometimes additional deliberately sown herbaceous plants. Ground cover is seen as part of the ecosystem that includes grain or vegetable crops and orchards. Chickens run free throughout the orchards and ducks and carp frequent rice fields.^[14]

Periodically some ground layer plants including weeds may be cut low and left on the surface, returning their nutrients to the soil, while shading and suppressing weed growth. This also facilitates the sowing of more seeds in the same area.

In the summer-rice and winter-barley grain crops, ground cover naturally provides nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere. In addition, straw from the previous crop covers the topsoil as mulch. Each grain crop is sown before the previous one is harvested by broadcasting the seed among the standing crop. The result is a denser crop of smaller but highly productive and stronger plants.

Fukuoka's practice and philosophy emphasises small scale operation and challenged the need for mechanised farming techniques for high productivity, efficiency and economies of scale. While his family's farm was larger than the Japanese average, he used one field of grain crops as a small-scale example of his system.

Nature Farming

Another Japanese farmer and philosopher Mokichi Okada, conceived of a "no fertilizer" farming system in the 1930s which predated Fukuoka. Okada used the same Japanese characters,^[15] which are generally translated in English as "Nature Farming". Agriculture researcher Hu-lian Xu claiming that "nature farming" is the correct literal translation of the Japanese term.^[15]

See also

	Sustainable development portal
	Systems science portal
	Ecology portal

• Agrarianism
• Biomimicry
• Brad Lancaster
• Conservation agriculture
• Ecoagriculture
• Ethnobotany
• Forest gardening
• Local Exchange Trading Systems
• Microponics
• No-dig gardening
• No-till farming
• Permaculture
• Seed saving
• Sepp Holzer
• Small house movement
• Sustainable design
• Transition Towns

References

1. ^ 1975 (Japanese) 自然農法-わら一本の革命 (English) 1978 re-presentation The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming.
2. ^ Linking foresight and sustainability: An integral approach Joshua Floyd, Kipling Zubevich Strategic Foresight Program and National Centre for Sustainability, Swinburne University of Technology
3. ^ Agriculture: A Fundamental Principle, Hanley Paul. Journal of Bahá’í Studies Vol. 3, number 1, 1990.
4. ^ 'The centrality of agriculture: between humankind and the rest of nature' by Duncan, Colin Adrien MacKinley. McGill Universities Libraries, Mar 1996.
5. ^ Trees on Organic Farms, Mirret, Erin Paige. North Carolina State University, 2001
6. ^ People And Environment: Development For The Future. Edited by Stocking, Michael University of East Anglia, Morse, Stephen University of East Anglia. Routledge, 1995.
7. ^ Participating in Nature: Thomas J. Elpel's Field Guide to Primitive Living Skills by Elpel, Thomas J. Nov 1, 2002
8. ^ What Does Natural Farming Mean? by Toyoda, Natsuko
9. ^ Sustainable Agricultural Education: An Experiential Approach to Shifting Consciousness and Practices. Reddy, Priya . Prescott College of Environmental Studies, December 2010
10. ^ From the ground up: rethinking industrial agriculture By Helena Norberg-Hodge, Peter Goering, John Page, International Society for Ecology and Culture
11. ^ Sustainable Agriculture: A Vision for Future by Desai, B.K. and B.T.Pujari. New India Publishing, 2007
12. ^ "Masanobu Fukuoka: The man who did nothing By Malvika Tegta" "DNA Daily News and Analysis". "Published: Sunday, Aug 22, 2010, 2:59 IST". "Place: Mumbai", India. (Retrieved 1 December 2010)
13. ^ "Natural farming succeeds in Indian village By Partap C Aggarwal" in the 1980s Satavic Farms (India), "Slowly, bit by bit, we found ourselves close to what is called ‘natural farming’, pioneered in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka. At Rasulia we called it 'rishi kheti' (agriculture of the sages)."
14. ^ 1975 (Japanese) 自然農法-わら一本の革命 (English) 1978 re-presentation The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming
15. ^ ^{a b} Xu, Hui-Lian (2001). NATURE FARMING In Japan (Monograph). T. C. 37/661(2), Fort Post Office, Trivandrum - 695023, Kerala, India.: Research Signpost. ISBN 81-308-0111-6. http://www.ressign.com/UserBookDetail.aspx?bkid=460&catid=140. Retrieved 6 March 2011. 

Persondata
Name	Farming, Natural
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 February 1913
Place of birth	Iyo, Japan
Date of death	16 August 2008
Place of death