Masanobu Fukuoka: Japanese Organic Farmer
(Page 8 of 13)
July/August 1982
By the Mother Earth News staff.
In the future, I expect that my yields of rice, barley, and other grains will continue to increase. After all, until recently I was growing the same kinds of crops that other farmers in the village—and, indeed, all over Japan—were planting. But as a result of practicing natural agriculture, I have now "developed" some new varieties, simply by allowing them to spring up in the fields. With those native seed cultivars, I think my farm has the potential to achieve the highest productivity in Japan . . . and possibly in the world, since my country leads the planet in average rice yields! If natural farming were used on a permanent basis, there'd be no reason why the production capability of any piece of land couldn't go far beyond its "chemical-based" levels . . . eventually approaching the highest yield theoretically possible, given the amount of energy reaching a field from the sun.
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PLOWBOY: I assume that—with such favorable production figures—you've been able to support yourself and your family with natural farming.
FUKUOKA: I haven't made a lot of money, but my overhead costs are so low that I've never been in danger of going completely broke. For one thing, after I began farming this way, word got around that the oranges grown on my mountain were the largest and sweetest in the entire village. That fruit provides the greatest part of my income. Then, too, as my holdings increased and the soil improved, things got easier for us. Yes, I've been able to make a comfortable—though modest—living by practicing natural farming.
PLOWBOY: Has the large-scale agricultural "establishment" exhibited any interest in your ideas?
FUKUOKA: I first presented this "direct seeding noncultivation winter grain/rice succession" plan in agricultural journals 25 years ago. From then on, the method appeared often in print, and I introduced it to the public at large on quite a few radio and television programs . . . but nobody paid much attention to it.
In the past 15 years or so, though, it seems to me that the general attitude toward natural farming has begun to change. Various agricultural research scientists have highly acclaimed my no-till technique. You might even say that natural farming is becoming the rage! Journalists, professors, farmers, technical researchers, and students are all flocking to visit my fields and stay in my huts up on the mountain.
By living a natural lifestyle and demonstrating its usefulness... I feel I am serving humankind... the ultimate goal of natural farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
PLOWBOY: Why the sudden surge of curiosity about your farming techniques?
FUKUOKA: I think it's because many people have gotten very far away from nature. Everything in the modern world has become noisy and overcomplicated, and people want to return to a simpler, quieter life . . . the kind of life I live as an ordinary farmer. You see, to the extent that men and women separate themselves from nature, they spin out further and further from the unchanging, unmoving center of reality. At the same time a centripetal effect asserts itself, causing a desire to return to nature—that true center—even as they move away from it. I believe that natural farming arises from that unchanging, unmoving center of life.
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