: [prakruti] Masanobu Fukuoka and his philopophy of life

[Guest guest]

At 09:50 AM 11/23/07, you wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

 

Here is an old article giving the views of Masanobu Fukuoka, the Japanese

Natural Farmer who has a global message for the world.

Fukuoka has visited India and particularly Mumbai a number of times since

his first visit in 1987. Fukuoka now in his late nineties has left

woking on his farm located on a slope of a hill but he is an inspiration

to all not only those interested in farming but he is great human of the

earth.

--

Kisan

Mehta

Priya Salvi

Save Bombay Committee and Prakruti

102, Mausam, Plot 285, Sector 28, Vashi,

Navi Mumbai 400705, India.

www.savebombaycommittee.org

Kisan Mehta: 0091 9223448857

Priya Salvi: 0091 9324027494

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greening The Desert

 

 

 

 

Applying natural farming techniques in Africa

 

 

 

 

an interview with Masanobu Fukuoka, by Robert and Diane

Gilman

 

 

One of the articles in

Sustainable Habitat

(IC#14)

Autumn 1986, Page 37

Copyright ©1986,

1997 by Context Institute |

To

order this issue ...

 

Masanobu Fukuoka is another of the major pioneers of sustainable

agriculture who came to the 2nd International Permaculture Conference. We

spoke with him a few days before the conference while he was visiting the

Abundant Life Seed Foundation in Port Townsend, Washington.

 

He likes to say of himself that he has no knowledge, but his books,

including One-Straw Revolution and The Natural Way of Farming

illustrate that he at least has wisdom. His farming method involves no

tillage, no fertilizer, no pesticides, no weeding, no pruning, and

remarkably little labor! He accomplishes all this (and high yields) by

careful timing of his seeding and careful combinations of plants

(polyculture). In short, he has brought the practical art of working with

nature to a high level of refinement.

 

In this interview, he describes how his natural farming methods might

be applied to the world's deserts, based on his experience in Africa

during 1985. Translation assistance for the interview was provided by

Katsuyuki Shibata and Hizuru Aoyama.

 

 

Robert: What have you learned in your 50 years of work about what

people could do with their agriculture?

 

Masanobu: I am a small man, as you can see, but I came to the

States with a very big intention. This small man becomes smaller and

smaller, and won't last very long, so I'd like to share my idea from 50

years ago. My dream is just like a balloon. It could get smaller and

smaller, or it could get bigger and bigger. If it could be said in a

brief way, it could be said as the word " nothingness. " In a

larger way it could wrap the entire earth.

I live on a small mountain doing farming. I don't have any knowledge, I

don't do anything. My way of farming is no cultivation, no fertilizer, no

chemicals. Ten years ago my book, One Straw Revolution, was

published by Rodale Press in the United States. From that point I

couldn't just sleep in the mountains. Seven years ago I took an airplane

for the first time in my life and went to California, Boston, New York

City. I was surprised because I thought the United States was full of

green everywhere, but it looked like death land to me.

Then I talked to the head of the desert department at the United Nations

about my natural farming. He asked me if my natural farming could change

the desert of Iraq. He told me to develop the way of changing the desert

to green. At that point I thought that I was a poor farmer and I had no

power and no knowledge, so I told him that I couldn't. But from then I

started thinking that my task is working on the desert.

Several years ago, I travelled around Europe. It seemed to me that Europe

was very nice and beautiful, with lots of nature preserved. But three

feet under the surface I felt desert slowly coming in. I kept wondering

why. I realized it was the mistake they made in agriculture. The

beginning of the mistake is from growing meat for the king and wine for

the church. All around, cow, cow, cow, grape, grape, grape. European and

American agriculture started with grazing cows and growing grapes for the

king and the church. They changed nature by doing this, especially on the

hill slopes. Then soil erosion occurs. Only the 20% of the soil in the

valleys remains healthy, and 80% of the land is depleted. Because the

land is depleted, they need chemical fertilizers and pesticides. United

States, Europe, even in Japan, their agriculture started by tilling the

land. Cultivation is also related to civilization, and that is the

beginning of the mistake. True natural farming uses no cultivation, no

plow. Using tractors a

Since my farm uses no cultivation, no fertilizer, no chemicals, there are

many insects and animals living there within the farm. They use pesticide

to kill a certain kind of pest, and that destroys the balance of nature.

If we allow it to be completely free, a perfect nature will come back.

 

Robert: How have you applied your method to the deserts?

 

Masanobu: Chemical agriculture can't change the desert. Even if

they have a tractor and a big irrigation system, they are not able to do

it. I came to the realization that to make the desert green requires

natural farming. The method is very simple. You just need to sow seeds in

the desert. Here is a picture of experimentation in Ethiopia. This area

was beautiful 90 years ago, and now it looks like the desert in Colorado.

I gave seeds for 100 varieties of plants to people in Ethiopia and

Somalia. Children planted seeds, and watered them for three days. Because

of high temperature and not having water, the root goes down quickly. Now

the large Daikon radishes are growing there. People think there isn't any

water in the desert, but even in Somalia and Ethiopia, they have a big

river. It is not that they do not have water; the water just stays

underneath the earth. They find the water under 6 to 12 feet.

Diane: Do you just use water to germinate the seeds, and then

the plants are on their own?

 

Masanobu: They still need water, like after ten days and after a

month, but you should not water too much, so that the root grows deep.

People have home gardens in Somalia these days.

The project started with the help of UNESCO with a large amount of money,

but there are only a couple of people doing the experiment right now.

These young people from Tokyo don't know much about farming. I think it

is better to send seeds to people in Somalia and Ethiopia, rather than

sending milk and flour, but there isn't any way to send them. People in

Ethiopia and Somalia can sow seeds, even children can do that. But the

African governments, the United States, Italy, France, they don't send

seeds, they only send immediate food and clothing. The African government

is discouraging home gardens and small farming. During the last 100

years, garden seed has become scarce.

Diane: Why do these governments do this?

 

Masanobu: The African governments and the United States government

want people to grow coffee, tea, cotton, peanuts, sugar - only five or

six varieties to export and make money. Vegetables are just food, they

don't bring in any money. They say they will provide corn and grain, so

people don't have to grow their own vegetables.

Robert: Do we, in the United States, have the type of seeds

that would grow well in these parts of Africa?

 

Masanobu: As a matter of fact, I saw quite a few plants including

vegetables, ornamentals, and grains here in this town (Port Townsend)

this morning that would grow in the desert. Something like Daikon radish

even grows better over there than in my fields, and also things like

amaranth and succulents grow very well.

Robert: So if people in the United States and Japan and Europe

wanted to help the people in Africa and reduce the desert, would you

suggest that they send seeds?

 

Masanobu: When I was in Somalia, I thought, if there are ten

farmers, one truck, and seeds, then it would be so easy to help the

people there. They don't have any greens for half of the year, they don't

have any vitamins, and so of course they get sick. They have even

forgotten how to eat vegetables. They just eat the leaves and not the

edible root portion.

I went to the Olympic National Park yesterday. I was very amazed and I

almost cried. There, the soil was alive! The mountain looked like the bed

of God. The forest seems alive, something you don't find even in Europe.

The redwoods in California and the French meadows are beautiful, but this

is the best! People who live around here have water and firewood and

trees. This is like a garden of Eden. If people are truly happy, this

place is a real Utopia.

The people in the deserts have only a cup and a knife and a pot. Some

families don't even have a knife, so they have to throw rocks to cut the

wood, and they have to carry that for a mile or more. I was very

impressed by seeing this beautiful area, but at the same time my heart

aches because of thinking about the people in the desert. The difference

is like heaven and hell. I think the world is coming to a very dangerous

point. The United States has the power to destroy the world but also to

help the world. I wonder if people in this country realize that the

United States is helping the people in Somalia but also killing them.

Making them grow coffee, sugar and giving them food. The Japanese

government is the same way. It gives them clothes, and the Italian

government gives them macaroni. The United States is trying to make them

bread eaters. The people in Ethiopia cook rice, barley and vegetables.

They are happy being small farmers. The United States government is

telling them to work, work, like sl

A Japanese college professor that went to Somalia and Ethiopia said this

is the hell of the world. I said, " No, this is the entrance to

heaven. " Those people have no money, no food, but they are very

happy. The reason they are very happy is that they don't have schools or

teachers. They are happy carrying water, happy cutting the wood. It is

not a hard thing for them to do; they truly enjoy doing that. Between

noon and three it is very hot, but other than that, there is a breeze,

and there are not flies or mosquitoes.

One thing the people of the United States can do instead of going to

outer space is to sow seeds from the space shuttle into the deserts.

There are many seed companies related to multi-national corporations.

They could sow seeds from airplanes.

Diane: If seeds were thrown out like that, would the rains be

enough to germinate them?

 

Masanobu: No, that is not enough, so I would sow coated seeds so

they wouldn't dry out or get eaten by animals. There are probably

different ways to coat the seeds. You can use soil, but you have to make

that stick, or you can use calcium.

My farm has everything: fruit trees, vegetables, acacia. Like my fields,

you need to mix everything and sow at the same time. I took about 100

varieties of grafted trees there, two of each, and almost all of them,

about 80%, are growing there now. The reason I am saying to use an

airplane is because, if you are just testing you use only a small area.

But we need to make a large area green quickly. It needs to be done at

once! You have to mix vegetables and trees; that's the fastest way for

success.

Another reason I am saying you have to use airplanes is that you have to

grow them fast, because if there is 3% less green area around the world,

the whole earth is going to die. Because of lack of oxygen, people won't

feel happy. You feel happy in the spring because of the oxygen from the

plants. We breathe out carbon dioxide and breathe in oxygen, and the

plants do the opposite. Human beings and plants not only have a

relationship in eating, but also share air. Therefore, the lack of oxygen

in Somalia is not only a problem there, it is also a problem here.

Because of the rapid depletion of the land in those parts of Africa,

everyone will feel this happening. It is happening very quickly. There is

no time to wait. We have to do something now.

People in Ethiopia are happy with wind and light, fire and water. Why do

people need more? Our task is to practice farming the way God does. That

could be the way to start saving this world.

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