COUNTRY OF ORIGINNatural Farming - Clay pellets to grow agro food products and revegetate deserts
Introduction
Sixty-five years ago, Masanobu Fukuoka, just after the end of Second World War, went back to his native village in Japan and started working in order to realize his vision: an earth-friendly agricultural method without using chemicals, fertilizers or technology. He called it natural farming, but he could have also called it “do-nothing farming", since Fukuoka’s approach was that of getting rid of unnecessary practices and work. It is zero energy farming as no oil (petroleum) is used.
Forty years later, his method reached the climax of simplicity. We can simply cover the seeds of forest trees, fruit trees, vegetables, grains and green manure plants with clay, make clay-balls and sow them before the rainy season starts, that is September and October for the Autumn seeding or March and April for the Spring seeding. In this way we can establish vegetable gardens and natural farms, we can grow grains and we can revegetate the deserts or barren mountains and wasteland.
The natural farming method has five principles, speaking about orchard trees: no tillage; no fertilizers; no pesticides; no weeding; no pruning. These principles are valid under any climatic or soil condition, although type or variety of vegetation might change from place to place.
Soil erosion, floods, landslides, lowering of the level of the underground water, decrease of the oxygen in the atmosphere, gradual increase of the temperature of our planet Earth and millions of hectares of fertile land turning into a desert are the heavy price the heavy cost paid for the loss of forests. On the other hand, chemical agriculture not only has failed to solve the hunger problem in the world, but has also polluted the air, the soil and the waters; on an economic level the farmers become poorer and poorer and the agricultural population is rapidly decreasing. Moreover, world’s financial crisis will lead to further exploitation of the natural resources and will exacerbate the above-mentioned problems. We should have a holistic approach and we should solve all the problems at once and natural farming has such an approach. Natural farming unites religion, philosophy and science that were one in the past.
During his life, Fukuoka received many awards such as: Magsaysay Award in the Philippines, the highest award in Asia; Deshikottam Award in India from the ex-Prime Minister Rajhiv Gandhi; Earth Council Award. He wrote six books, which have been translated into many languages, among others: The One-Straw Revolution; The Natural Way of Farming; The Revolution of God, Man and Nature.
In Greece, the first effort for the reforestation of barren mountains and hills started in 1993 by a group of volunteers. They started realizing small sowings and in 1998, with the participation of Fukuoka himself, they organized a 10,000 hectares seeding, the largest ever realized. In 1999, they established the Natural Farming Centre in Klisohori, near the town of Edessa, in Northern Greece.
The Natural Farming Centre collaborates with organizations of many countries interested in promoting natural farming, and offers, through its experts, technical assistance to implement projects utilizing this innovative know-how.
DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE PDF
english (0.9 MB)spanish (0.9 MB)