The One-Straw Revolution - Multiworld India

that the plow is essential for growing crops. However, non-cultivation isfundamental to natural farming. The earth cultivates itself naturally bymeans of the penetration of plant roots and the activity ofmicroorganisms, small animals, and earthworms.The second is NO CHEMICAL FERTILIZER OR PREPAREDCOMPOST [For fertilizer Mr. Fukuoka grows a leguminous groundcover of white clover, returns the threshed straw to the fields, and adds alittle poultry manure.] People interfere with nature, and, try as they may,they cannot heal the resulting wounds. Their careless farming practicesdrain the soil of essential nutrients and the result is yearly depletion ofthe land. If left to itself, the soil maintains its fertility naturally, inaccordance with the orderly cycle of plant and animal life.The third is NO WEEDING BY TILLAGE OR HERBICIDES.Weeds play their part in building soil fertility and in balancing thebiological community. As a fundamental principle, weeds should becontrolled, not eliminated. Straw mulch, a ground cover of white cloverinterplanted with the crops, and temporary flooding provide effectiveweed control in my fields.The fourth is NO DEPENDENCE ON CHEMICALS [ Mr. Fukuokagrows his grain crops without chemicals of any kind. On some orchardtrees he occasionally uses a machine oil emulsion for the control ofinsect scales. He uses no persistent or broad-spectrum poisons, and hasno pesticide "program."] From the time that weak plants developed as aresult of such unnatural practices as plowing and fertilizing, disease andinsect imbalance became a great problem in agriculture. Nature, leftalone, is in perfect balance. Harmful insects and plant diseases arealways present, but do not occur in nature to an extent which requires theuse of poisonous chemicals. The sensible approach to disease and insectcontrol is to grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment.34