Natural farming is based on the observation of nature and allowing it to do what it naturally does best.
Born in a small farming village on the island of Shikoku in Southern
Japan in 1914, Masanobu Fukuoka was trained in microbiology as a plant
pathologist. His career began as an agriculture customs inspector
running tests on incoming and outgoing plants at the port of Yokohama.
At twenty-five, he started to question what he had learned about
modern agriculture science, and came to accept that all the
accomplishments of human progress are insignificant before the totality
of nature.
Fukuoka has learned how plants can grow naturally and vigorously with
little or no human effort. For over fifty years he has achieved surplus
yields of rice, barley, plums, citrus fruits and vegetables by means of
natural farming. Fukuoka's methods have also been used to green the
deserts, with the use of seed balls.
The five major principles of Fukuoka's farming methods are:
- No tillage
- No fertilizer
- No pesticides
- No weeding
- No pruning
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