It is a commonly thought that modern farm practices yields higher quantities of food that meets growing population needs.  It is also argued that especially for developing countries to avoid food shortage modern chemical means of agriculture are needed to boost production. Is this true?

         Farmers like Masanobu Fukuoka practice what he calls the "no-plowing, no-fertilizing, no-weeding, no-pesticides, do-nothing method of natural farming". To him the idea that people can grow crops is egocentric. Ultimately, it is nature that grows crops. He sees modern agriculture as doing-this or doing-that to grow crops, but, according to him, it is meaningless work. With his do-nothing method he is able to get yields in his rice fields that are equal to the highest yields attained with chemical, do-something agriculture.
 

Astonishing Yields
        Without using soil polluting chemicals and fertilizers and with less labor, this Japanese rice farm yields about 22 bushels (1,300 pounds) per quarter acre. This is a very good yield. Agricultural scientists are astonished at the quality of Masanobu Fukuoka's farm soil. With every crop, the soil gets richer and richer unlike our modern farms which are rapidly  getting depleted of nutrients.

         Fukuoka was born in 1914 and schooled in the Western sciences of microbiology and plant pathology. He worked as an agricultural customs inspector in Japan until he became gravely ill at the age of twenty-five. After his sickness he was "reborn", realizing that "human knowledge was meaningless". Click here  to read an interview of Masanobu Fukuoka. Click here  to read his interview on transforming Africa to produce self-sufficient food. What he does do, is manipulate habitat to favor the crops he wants to grow. He works within the laws of ecology to tilt the ecosystem in favor of the plants he wants. Then his crops virtually invade and grow like weeds.

Look at Forests to Learn

           Masanobu Fukuoka got his inspiration from healthy forests where the soil is fertile and trees are healthy. He seems to feel that if they are doing well in the natural way, why can we not adopt the same logic? His natural farming is the brightest hope for the future of the world to grow healthy crops; and for our environment.  In India, natural farming is often referred to as "Rishi Kheti", the intellectual way of environmental harmony, without stripping nature.

         Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution is worth reading. Here, he beautifully describes how, through farming by natural means, he was indeed farming his own mind. The result of both, inner and outer farming, in this natural way was the same  - peace.

"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the
cultivation and perfection of human beings" - Masanobu Fukuoka