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Natural farming is a method of farming based on four principles. No tillage No fertilizers No pesticides No weed or herbicides The founder of this method named Masanobou Fukuoka, a farmer, philosopher and ex plant pathologist has also called it do-nothing farming. Natural farming differs radically from scientific farming as well as from organic farming, because the philosophical departure point is the view that Nature is perfect while human knowledge is limited and imperfect. The natural farmer's basic goal is to serve Nature, to create a fertile soil, then healthy plants and at the and to attain economic sufficiency. He has a holistic approach and he is based on intuitive, non-discriminating knowledge; a knowledge that is born when man becomes one with Nature, destroying the discrimination caused by the human mind. Today natural farming method has reached the greatest simplicity. We can establish natural farms, revegetate barren hills and mountains, regreen the deserts and turn the Earth into a Paradise if we make seedballs with clay and sow a big variety of more than a hundred different kinds of seeds of fruit and forest trees, vegetables, grains and green manure plants before the rainy seasons starts (autumn-spring).
In other to solve the soil erosion problem, to improve soil fertility and solve the problem of insect attacks and diseases the key is a big variety of plants living together in harmony. Masanobu Fukuoka, the founder of natural farming method, was born in a small farming village in the island of Shikoku in southern Japan in 1913. He was trained in microbiology as a plant pathologist and worked as an agricultural inspector at the customs office at the port of Yokohama. Then at the age of twenty-five he started questioning everything he had learned about the “wonders” of modern agricultural science and in a downing of vision he come to see that all the “accomplishments” of human civilization are meaningless before the totality of Nature. He went back to his village and his life has been dedicated to fullfilling the promise of that vision. He visited twice the United States in 1979 and in 1981, Europe in 1981, Somalia and Ethiopia in 1985,Tanzania in 1996, Vietnam, Thailand, India twice and many other countries. He was awarded the Magsaysay Prize in Philippines, the Deshikottan Award in India and the Earth Council Award. He passed away peacefully the 16th of August 2008, at the age of 96.
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NATURAL FARMING