Misconceptions about Natural farming

Typically people think 'Natural farming' as leaving everything to nature and take what ever we get from crops. This is not how Masanobu Fukuoka had practised natural farming. First of all he was a true farmer and had been living from the income from farming. So he had genuine attitude towards farming. His rice fields were better than conventionally farmed rice fields and yield was comparable and some times better. His mandarin orange orchards had lot of fruits on them and is an amazing sight to see that.

Masanobu Fukuoka had deep understanding of weeds and its cycles and used clover to suppress weeds. He sowed wheat seeds and clover before the paddy was harvested so that wheat establishes before the weeds. Clover suppress grass and provides nitrogen to crops. He also applied 900 pounds of chicken manure on 0.25 acre of paddy field. Generally people think that in Natural Farming, there is no need to apply any fertilizer.

While planting fruit saplings, he suggests to fill coarse organic content in to the pit. He also suggests to bury wood to the orchards in trenches, all these will help to develop the land. He also grows 16 acasia trees per acre for green manuring along with complete cover of clover.

So all these suggests that it was not just leaving everything to nature and take what ever nature gives. There is much more intelligent intervention in Natural farming.