The Fukuoka method is a revolutionary way of understanding agriculture returning to its origins. Also called Natural Agriculture, the methods of former microbiologist Masanobu Fukuoka are based on non-intervention (Wu Wei). This wise farmer proposes that we have separated from nature and that natural things are scarce. Anyone can practice this type of agriculture following simple and logical principles, as the goal is to cultivate the land naturally.
Basic Principles of Natural Agriculture
Do not plow: In its natural state the land does not plow itself and the forests continue to be more fertile every year if they are allowed to evolve. By removing the earth we are modifying part of the structure and composition of the soil and destroying microscopic communities of nematodes, bacteria and fungi that make a land rich and varied.
Do not use fertilizers or fertilizers: Similarly, forests are not fertilized based on concentrated compounds. The simple contribution of plant material that is broken down by the action of the above-mentioned inhabitants of the soil is enough to recover the nutrients that once captured the plants at different depths of the soil. All this and many more particles from animal fauna and what the wind brings cause the plant layer to concentrate immense fertility.
Do not eliminate weeds or use herbicides: Weeds do not exist if we know them and learn to control them with natural methods. Fukuoka proposes to study them to take advantage of them and that interactions with other plant species and the fauna of the soil to enrich the agrosystem. An invasion of clover ceases to be when we think it prevents the growth of other larger plants and enriches the soil by fixing nutrients such as nitrogen thanks to symbiosis with certain soil bacteria.
Do not use pesticides: Pests in monocultures can only be controlled by poisons. The Fukuoka method avoids this type of intensive cultivation, which depletes the soil, and prefers systems with several species, where it is possible to naturally balance insect populations so that they are not harmful.
Not prune: The purpose is to allow plants to achieve the bearing for which nature designed them. You can prune a diseased branch or one that bothers in excess to another plant that interests us, but it is not interesting to modify the original shape of a tree based on drastic pruning.
This natural way of cultivating has been encompassed in the techniques of the so-called Permaculture and is ultimately based on observing and imitating nature, which is much wiser than us, instead of trying to control each and every one of the factors of a ecosystem based on chemical products, mechanical treatments or genetic alterations.
Although many may think that it is the madness of an idealistic Japanese, it should be known that the Fukuoka method has been used successfully in many countries and that he himself has achieved rice plantations with grains twice as large as the large monocultures of Rice from your country. Of course, its rice plantations can be mixed with apple trees, rye plants and white clover tapestries. This is the best of all, that your system works. It has even been used successfully to green areas devoid of vegetation.
The technique of not doing
Wu Wei (doing nothing) is not about sitting down and waiting for the earth to become the garden of Eden. Many times it requires years of observation and study of the land, until you find the right species and achieve an optimal fertility state to achieve good production.
What is certain is that the fruits obtained are of an unsurpassed flavor by any modern agricultural farm, where the apples are picked many months before ripening so that they can be stored for a long time and transported by ship to their final destinations. When they arrive they will do so without the taste of freshly picked apples at their exact ripening point, in addition to inflated prices because of intermediaries.
Clay balls or Nendo dango, this planting system is also surprising for its simplicity. To prevent birds from eating a large part of the seeds, wrap them in 2-3 cm clay balls and spread them across the field. With the rains, the balls that protect the seed fall apart and allow the seed to grow.
The leftover vegetable remains from the previous year's crop serve to cover the land, provide protection against erosion, conserve moisture and serve as compost to the soil. This is the case in nature and this effective system is more than proven for hundreds of thousands of years.
The Fukuoka method or Natural Agriculture could be considered as a form of organic farming led to the extreme. In addition it is also Permaculture because it seeks in equal degree the care of the land and people to obtain a fair performance. This approach to nature must be taken very seriously because in addition to its effectiveness it is a way of producing food without squeezing the ecosystem.
"The natural path of cultivation" is one of the books that have made Masanobu Fukuoka universally known.
