Natural Farming is actually as simple as the first word of this sentence. Ever looked at a forest and wondered how the trees grow abundantly with nobody to water them, give them fertilisers, or tend to them? An animal or a passerby eats fruit and throws the seed away. The seed either starts growing where it lands or a little way away it gets pushed to, by travelling feet. And that’s it. Months later, there is a tree standing where the seed was, and soon it starts bearing fruits, provides shade, and become homes to birds and sometimes, animals.
Then why do the plants and trees we grow in farms need chemicals to grow? They don’t actually, and in this post, we shall explain how.
What Is Natural Farming?
If loosely explained, natural farming is the method where farmers allow the crops to grow naturally, depending only on nature. A proponent of this no-till, pesticide-free method of cultivation was a Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka.
His Wikipedia profile explains natural farming as the system is based on the recognition of the complexity of living organisms that shape an ecosystem and deliberately exploiting it. Fukuoka saw farming not just as a means of producing food but as an aesthetic and spiritual approach to life, the ultimate goal of which was ‘the cultivation and perfection of human beings’.
Fukuoka’s book The One-Straw Revolution explains natural farming in detail.
The idea isn’t to drop seeds on the farm and let them grow by themselves. In fact, the idea is to minimise human intervention and manipulation. Accepted agricultural practices are the same as laws of nature in this method.
How Is Natural Farming Different From Organic Farming?
While both methods of farming are pesticide-free methods, organic farming allows the use of organic inputs like biopesticides, biofertilisers, biocultures and vermicompost while in natural farming, emphasis is laid on observing and mimicking nature, nothing should be brought into the farm from outside. Focus is on using natural ingredients already available at the farm.
Why Natural Farming?
If it’s not clear already, natural farming because – earth and our bodies both need to be rid of pesticides and harmful chemicals that are used in farming otherwise. Fear of these chemicals have grown so much, and not without reason if one might add, that a lot of people fear vegetables that cannot be pealed should be avoided. Green leafy vegetables are avoided because the leaves get sprayed on with chemical fertilisers directly and one might argue that washing them doesn’t remove all danger of consuming them for long periods.
Produce grown through natural farming is safe for everyone and goes the extra mile to be good for health too. Have you seen food channels abroad wash and slice cucumber without peeling the skin? Normally we don’t because we fear the chemical settled on the skin of the cucumber cannot be washed away. But with naturally grown produce, all one needs to do is wipe or wash the dust or dirt that might be on them, and enjoy the food!
Natural Farming & Soil Health
Another huge contribution of natural farming is that it cures soil quality and improves water retention which subsequently helps in recharging groundwater which is drastically going down because of chemical farming. Soil that has been dumped with chemicals for decades can be made airy and fertile in just a matter of a few months if this process is followed sincerely.
Since there is no use of pesticides, natural farming improves soil health remarkably by reducing soil erosion, decreasing nitrate leaching into groundwater and surface water, and recycling animal wastes back into the farm.
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Are you thinking of taking up farming as a profession? Pesticide-free, natural free farming is the future and if like more than 500 farming aspirants & farmers that we have trained and consulted if you too are keen to know how to make the move and what exactly is natural farming – drop us a message at narmadanaturalfarms@gmail.com or WhatsApp message at 9303539939.
Sankalp Sharma is available for personal and group consultations on a one-time as well as regular basis. Connect with us and we can discuss what option suits you best.
[…] Also Read: UNDERSTANDING NATURAL FARMING […]