Natural farming

{{Short description|Sustainable farming approach}} {{Distinguish|Nature Farming}} right|thumbnail|Masanobu Fukuoka, originator of the natural farming method

'''Natural farming''' (自然農法, shizen nōhō),<ref name="One–Straw_Translator's_Notes">1975 {{in lang|ja}} {{nihongo2|自然農法-わら一本の革命}} {{in lang|en}} 1978 re-presentation ''The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming''.</ref> also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming", or "do-nothing farming", is an ecological farming approach established by Masanobu Fukuoka (1913–2008). Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer and philosopher, introduced the term in his 1975 book ''The One-Straw Revolution''. The title refers not to lack of effort, but to the avoidance of manufactured inputs and equipment. Natural farming is related to fertility farming, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, agroecology, agroforestry, ecoagriculture and permaculture, but should be distinguished from biodynamic agriculture.

The system works along with the natural biodiversity, the interactions and relationships each farmed area, encouraging the complexity of living organisms—both plant and animal—that shape each particular ecosystem to thrive along with food plants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.finalstraw.org/life-and-death/|title=Life and Death in the Field {{!}} Final Straw – Food {{!}} Earth {{!}} Happiness|website=www.finalstraw.org|date=29 May 2016 |language=en|access-date=2017-04-16}}</ref> Fukuoka saw farming both as a means of producing food and as an aesthetic or spiritual approach to life, the ultimate goal of which was, "the cultivation and perfection of human beings".<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.futures.2009.08.001| title = Linking foresight and sustainability: An integral approach| journal = Futures| volume = 42| pages = 59–68| year = 2010| last1 = Floyd | first1 = J. | last2 = Zubevich | first2 = K. }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Agriculture: A Fundamental Principle |last=Hanley |first=Paul |journal=Journal of Bahá'í Studies |volume=3 |issue=1 |year=1990 |url=https://www.bahai-studies.ca/journal/files/jbs/3.1%20Hanley.pdf |access-date=April 28, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130327202848/http://www.bahai-studies.ca/journal/files/jbs/3.1%20Hanley.pdf |archive-date=March 27, 2013 }}</ref> While Fukuoka's world view was influenced from Zen Buddhism and Taoist spiritual beliefs, he was not interested in dogmatic religion and instead saw nature as the teacher and natural farming as the ultimate spiritual practice. For Fukuoka, spiritual health was evaluated through one's relationship to the land. He suggested that farmers could benefit from closely observing local conditions.<ref name="Duncan1996">{{cite book|author=Colin Adrien MacKinley Duncan|title=The Centrality of Agriculture: Between Humankind and the Rest of Nature|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=c0ZcTTXw9a8C}}|year=1996|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-6571-5}}</ref> Natural farming is a closed system, one that demands no human-supplied inputs and mimics natural conditions.<ref>Trees on Organic Farms, Mirret, Erin Paige. North Carolina State University, 2001</ref>

Fukuoka developed natural farming after observation that farmers were losing their sensitivity to the land after Americans introduced chemical agriculture to Japan post World War II. He saw that with the introduction of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, the typical time and labor for farmers was cut in half and traditional farming methods such as crop rotation and crop covers were neglected which depleted soil minerals and structure. This in turn impacted crop health. Fukuoka accredited chemical agriculture as technology that was interested solely in economic and industrial development. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Fukuoka|first=Masanobu|title=Sowing seeds in the desert: natural farming, global restoration, and ultimate food security|date=2012|publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing|isbn=978-1-60358-522-4|editor-last=Korn|editor-first=Larry|location=White River Junction, Vermont}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fukuoka|first1=Masanobu|title=The one-straw revolution: an introduction to natural farming|last2=Korn|first2=Larry|last3=Berry|first3=Wendell|last4=Lappé|first4=Frances Moore|date=2009|publisher=New York Review Books|isbn=978-1-59017-313-8|series=New York Review Books classics|location=New York|translator-last=Pearce|translator-first=Chris|translator-last2=Kurosawa|translator-first2=Tsune}}</ref>

Fukuoka's natural farming practice rejected the use of modern technology, and after twenty-five years, his farm demonstrated consistently comparable yields to that of the most technologically advanced farms in Japan, doing so without the pollution, soil loss, energy consumption, and environmental degradation inherent in these modern types of farming. One of the main prompts of natural farming, is to ask why we should apply modern technology to the process of growing food, if nature is capable of achieving similar yields without the negative side-effects of these technologies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fukuoka|first=Masanobu|title=Sowing seeds in the desert : natural farming, global restoration, and ultimate food security|date=2012|publisher=Chelsea Green Pub|others=Larry Korn|isbn=978-1-60358-418-0|location=White River Junction, Vt.|pages=xix|oclc=759171802}}</ref> Such ideas radically challenged conventions that are core to modern agro-industries; instead of promoting importation of nutrients and chemicals, he suggested an approach that takes advantage of the local environment.<ref name="stock and morse">{{cite book|author1=Stephen Morse|author2=Michael Stockin|title=People and Environment: Development for the Future|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=nPeHlOh0y_UC}}|year=1995|publisher=Taylor & Francis Group|isbn=978-1-85728-283-2}}</ref> Although natural farming is sometimes considered a subset of organic farming, it differs greatly from conventional organic farming,<ref>{{cite book |title=Participating in Nature: Thomas J. Elpel's Field Guide to Primitive Living Skills |last=Elpel |first=Thomas J. |date=November 1, 2002 |publisher=HOPS Press |isbn=1892784122}}</ref> which Fukuoka considered to be another modern technique that disturbs nature.<ref>[http://www.jef.or.jp/backnumber/162th_promenade.pdf What Does Natural Farming Mean?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720070520/http://www.jef.or.jp/backnumber/162th_promenade.pdf |date=2011-07-20 }} by Toyoda, Natsuko</ref>

Fukuoka claimed that his approach prevents water pollution, biodiversity loss and soil erosion, while providing ample amounts of food, all while outcompeting the yield of other farmlands in Japan that utilize fertilizer and pesticides. There is a growing body of scientific work in fields like agroecology and regenerative agriculture, that lend support to these claims.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Science {{!}} Agroecology Knowledge Hub {{!}} Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations|url=http://www.fao.org/agroecology/knowledge/science/en/|access-date=2021-11-27|website=www.fao.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hilmi|first=Angela|title=Agroecology : reweaving a new landscape|date=2018|isbn=978-3-319-68489-5|location=Cham|oclc=1012884027}}</ref><ref name="Reddystudies2010">{{cite book|author1=Priya Reddy|author2=Prescott College Environmental studies|title=Sustainable Agricultural Education: An Experiential Approach to Shifting Consciousness and Practices|url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=dtE8MwEACAAJ}}|year=2010|publisher=Prescott College|isbn=978-1-124-38302-6}}</ref>

== Masanobu Fukuoka's principles ==

In principle, practitioners of natural farming maintain that it is not a ''technique'' but a ''view'', or a way of seeing ourselves as a part of nature, rather than separate from or above it.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.finalstraw.org/masanobu-fukuoka-and-natural-farming/|title=Masanobu Fukuoka and Natural Farming {{!}} Final Straw – Food {{!}} Earth {{!}} Happiness|website=www.finalstraw.org|language=en|access-date=2017-04-11}}</ref> Accordingly, the methods themselves vary widely depending on culture and local conditions.

Rather than offering a structured method, Fukuoka distilled the natural farming mindset into five principles:<ref name="Norberg-HodgeGoering2001">{{cite book|author1=Helena Norberg-Hodge|author2=Peter Goering|author3=John Page|title=From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I4sQTjNulnQC|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-85649-994-1}}</ref>

# No tillage # No fertilizer # No pesticides or herbicides # No weeding # No pruning [[File:Production still from "Final Straw, Food, Earth, Happiness" shows rice harvesting on a natural farm.jpg|alt=A young man helps harvest rice by hand at a natural farm in a production still from the film "Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness"|thumb|A young man helps harvest rice by hand at a natural farm, in this production still from the film "[http://www.finalstraw.org/ Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness]"]]

Though many of his plant varieties and practices relate specifically to Japan and even to local conditions in subtropical western Shikoku, his philosophy and the governing principles of his farming systems have been applied widely around the world, from Africa to the temperate northern hemisphere.

Principally, natural farming minimises human labour and adopts, as closely as practical, nature's production of foods such as rice, barley, daikon or citrus in biodiverse agricultural ecosystems. Without plowing, seeds germinate well on the surface if site conditions meet the needs of the seeds placed there. Fukuoka used the presence of spiders in his fields as a key performance indicator of sustainability.{{citation needed|date=February 2012}}

Fukuoka specifies that the ground remain covered by weeds, white clover, alfalfa, herbaceous legumes, and sometimes deliberately sown herbaceous plants. Ground cover is present along with grain, vegetable crops and orchards. Chickens run free in orchards and ducks and carp populate rice fields.<ref>1975 {{in lang|ja}} {{nihongo2|自然農法-わら一本の革命}} {{in lang|en}} 1978 re-presentation ''The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming''</ref>

Periodically ground layer plants including weeds may be cut and left on the surface, returning their nutrients to the soil, while suppressing weed growth. This also facilitates the sowing of seeds in the same area because the dense ground layer hides the seeds from animals such as birds.

For summer rice and winter barley grain crops, ground cover enhances nitrogen fixation. Straw from the previous crop mulches the topsoil. Each grain crop is sown before the previous one is harvested by broadcasting the seed among the standing crop. Later, this method was reduced to a single direct seeding of clover, barley and rice over the standing heads of rice.<ref name="Fukuoka1987">{{cite book|author=Masanobu Fukuoka|title=The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy|url={{google books|plainurl=y |id=L3M_AAAAYAAJ}}|year=1987|publisher=Japan Publications|isbn=978-0-87040-613-3}}</ref> The result is a denser crop of smaller, but highly productive and stronger plants.

Fukuoka's practice and philosophy emphasised small scale operation and challenged the need for mechanised farming techniques for high productivity, efficiency and economies of scale. While his family's farm was larger than the Japanese average, he used one field of grain crops as a small-scale example of his system.

== Yoshikazu Kawaguchi == thumb|Yoshikazu Kawaguchi at Akame Natural Farm School Widely regarded as the leading practitioner of the second-generation of natural farmers, Yoshikazu Kawaguchi was the instigator of Akame Natural Farm School, and a related network of volunteer-based "no-tuition" natural farming schools in Japan that numbers 40 locations and more than 900 concurrent students.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=(Japan))|first1=Hokazono, S.(Mie Univ., Tsu|last2=K.|first2=Ohara|date=2007-01-01|title=The role of a learning site for urban residents hoping to do farming: Focusing on the spread of 'natural farming' by the Akame Natural Farming School|url=http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=JP2008004433|journal=Journal of Rural Problems (Japan)|language=ja|issn=0388-8525}}</ref> Although Kawaguchi's practice is based on Fukuoka's principles, his methods differ notably from those of Fukuoka. He re-states the core values of natural farming as:

# Do not plow the fields # Weeds and insects are not your enemies # There is no need to add fertilizers # Adjust the foods you grow based on your local climate and conditions

Kawaguchi's recognition outside of Japan has become wider after his appearance as the central character in the documentary ''Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness'', through which his interviews were translated into several languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.finalstraw.org|title=Final Straw – Food - Earth - Happiness|website=www.finalstraw.org}}</ref> He is the author of several books in Japan, though none have been officially translated into English.

Kawaguchi left the management of Akame Farm School to his students in 2016. He continued to teach natural farming at his home in Nara prefecture until he died in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37510039 |title='Body and Earth Are Not Two': Kawaguchi Yoshikazu's NATURAL FARMING and American Agriculture Writers|website=ResearchGate|language=en|access-date=2017-04-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-20 |title=［訃報］川口由一さん 自然農の実践家 |url=https://www.okinawatimes.co.jp/articles/-/1172814 |access-date=2025-08-07 |website=沖縄タイムス＋プラス |language=ja}}</ref>

== No-till == {{more citations needed section|date=February 2012}}

Natural farming recognizes soils as a fundamental natural asset. Ancient soils possess physical and chemical attributes that render them capable of generating and supporting life abundance. It can be argued that tilling actually degrades the delicate balance of a climax soil:

# Tilling may destroy crucial physical characteristics of a soil such as ''water suction'', its ability to send moisture upwards, even during dry spells. The effect is due to pressure differences between soil areas. Furthermore, tilling most certainly destroys soil horizons and hence disrupts the established flow of nutrients. A study suggests that reduced tillage preserves the crop residues on the top of the soil, allowing organic matter to be formed more easily and hence increasing the total organic carbon and nitrogen when compared to conventional tillage. The increases in organic carbon and nitrogen increase aerobic, facultative anaerobic and anaerobic bacteria populations.<ref>{{cite book| title=Principles and Applications of Soil Microbiology| last1=Sylvia |first1=D.M. |last2=Fuhrmann |first2=J.J. |last3=Hartel |first3=P.G. |last4=Zuberer |first4=D.A.| publisher=Prentice Hall| location=New Jersey| year=1999| isbn=0130941174| pages=39–41 |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=tLjwAAAAMAAJ|p=39}}}}</ref> # Tilling over-pumps oxygen to local soil residents, such as bacteria and fungi. As a result, the chemistry of the soil changes. Biological decomposition accelerates and the microbiota mass increases at the expense of other organic matter, adversely affecting most plants, including trees and vegetables. For plants to thrive a certain quantity of organic matter (around 5%) must be present in the soil. # Tilling uproots all the plants in the area, turning their roots into food for bacteria and fungi. This damages their ability to aerate the soil. Living roots drill millions of tiny holes in the soil and thus provide oxygen.<!-- just oxygen? --> They also create room for beneficial insects and annelids (the phylum of worms). Some types of roots contribute directly to soil fertility by funding a mutualistic relationship with certain kinds of bacteria (most famously the rhizobium) that can fix nitrogen.

Fukuoka advocated avoiding any change in the natural landscape. This idea differs significantly from some recent permaculture practice that focuses on permaculture design, which may involve the change in landscape. For example, Sepp Holzer, an Austrian permaculture farmer, advocates the creation of terraces on slopes to control soil erosion. Fukuoka avoided the creation of terraces in his farm, even though terraces were common in China and Japan in his time. Instead, he prevented soil erosion by simply growing trees and shrubs on slopes.

== Other forms of natural farming == [[File:P-14 lady beetle.jpg|thumb|right|Ladybirds consume aphids and are considered beneficial by natural farmers that apply biological control.]]Although the term "natural farming" came into common use in the English language during the 1980s with the translation of the book ''One Straw Revolution'', the natural farming mindset itself has a long history throughout the world, spanning from historical Native American practices to modern day urban farms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2015/09/16/a-restaurant-and-garden-serving-up-connections-to-urban-nature/|title=Social Practice Artwork: A Restaurant and Garden Serving up Connections to Urban Nature|last=Lydon|first=Patrick|date=2015-09-16|website=The Nature of Cities|access-date=2017-04-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sociecity.org/post/2015/urban-empathy-garden/|title=Artwork / Urban Empathy Garden {{!}} SocieCity|website=sociecity.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-11|date=2015-06-23}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1ppfn4|title=Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources|last=ANDERSON|first=M. KAT|date=2005-01-01|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520238565|edition=1|chapter=Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources}}</ref>

Some variants, and their particularities include:

=== Fertility farming ===

In 1951, Newman Turner advocated the practice of "fertility farming", a system featuring the use of a cover crop, no tillage, no chemical fertilizers, no pesticides, no weeding and no composting. Although Turner was a commercial farmer and did not practice random seeding of seed balls, his "fertility farming" principles share similarities with Fukuoka's system of natural farming. Turner also advocated a "natural method" of animal husbandry.<ref>{{cite book| author=Newman Turner| title=Fertility Farming| isbn=978-1601730091| year=1951| publisher=Faber and Faber Limited| url=http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/turner/turnerToC.html}}</ref>

=== Native American === Recent research in the field of traditional ecological knowledge finds that for over one hundred centuries, Native American tribes worked the land in strikingly similar ways to today's natural farmers. Author and researcher M. Kat Anderson writes that "According to contemporary Native Americans, it is only through interaction and relationships with native plants that mutual respect is established."<ref name=":0" /> Traditional ecological knowledge, also referred to as TEK, parallels natural farming methods in that they are both interested in working with the natural processes of the Earth. They both promote the development of sensitivity and harmonious relationships between humans, plants, and animals. Ways to achieve this would be through mindful long term observation, reciprocity, and offering thanks to the land. Similar to natural farming, TEK is localized and shifts with each tribe's personal relationship to land. It is also referred to as Indigenous local knowledge.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nelson|first1=Melissa K.|title=Traditional ecological knowledge: learning from indigenous practices for environmental sustainability|last2=Shilling|first2=Dan|date=2018|publisher=Cambridge university press|isbn=978-1-108-42856-9|series=New directions in sustainability and society|location=Cambridge}}</ref>

=== Nature Farming (Mokichi Okada) === {{main|Nature Farming}} Japanese farmer and philosopher Mokichi Okada, conceived of a "no fertilizer" farming system in the 1930s that predated Fukuoka. Okada used the same Chinese characters as Fukuoka's "natural farming" however, they are translated into English slightly differently, as nature farming.<ref name="NATURE FARMING-Xu1">{{cite book|url=http://www.ressign.com/UserBookDetail.aspx?bkid=460&catid=140|title=NATURE FARMING In Japan|last=Xu|first=Hui-Lian|publisher=Research Signpost|year=2001 |location=T. C. 37/661(2), Fort Post Office, Trivandrum - 695023, Kerala, India |type=Monograph|isbn=81-308-0111-6 |access-date=6 March 2011}}</ref> Agriculture researcher Hu-lian Xu claims that "nature farming" is the correct literal translation of the Japanese term.<ref name="NATURE FARMING-Xu1" />

=== Rishi Kheti === In India, natural farming of Masanobu Fukuoka was called "Rishi Kheti" by practitioners like Partap Aggarwal.<ref name="Mr. Fukuoka news article 2010 Mumbai India">[http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_masanobu-fukuoka-the-man-who-did-nothing_1426864 "Masanobu Fukuoka: The man who did nothing By Malvika Tegta"] "DNA Daily News and Analysis". "Published: Sunday, Aug 22, 2010, 2:59 IST". "Place: Mumbai", India. (Retrieved 1 December 2010)</ref><ref name="Nature Farmers-India Rishi Keti">[http://www.satavic.org/rishikheti.htm "Natural farming succeeds in Indian village By Partap C Aggarwal" in the 1980s] [http://www.satavic.org/media.htm ''Satavic Farms''] (India), "Slowly, bit by bit, we found ourselves close to what is called ‘natural farming’, pioneered in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka. At Rasulia we called it 'rishi kheti' (agriculture of the sages)."</ref> The Rishi Kheti use cow products like buttermilk, milk, curd and its waste urine for preparing growth promoters. The Rishi Kheti is considered to be non-violent farming<ref>{{Cite web|title=Introductory Agriculture: Student Handbook NSQF Level 1 Class IX|url=http://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/Curriculum/Vocational/2018/Introductory%20Agriculture%20IX%20(408).pdf|page=121}}</ref> without any usage of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. They obtain high quality{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} natural or organic produce having medicinal values. Today still a small number of farmers in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu use this farming method in India.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

===Zero Budget Farming=== {{Main|Zero Budget Natural Farming}} Zero Budget Farming is a variation on natural farming developed in, and primarily practiced in southern India. It is also called spiritual farming. The method involves mulching, intercropping, and the use of several preparations which include cow dung. These preparations, generated on-site, are central to the practice, and said to promote microbe and earthworm activity in the soil.<ref>{{cite web|title=Zero Budget Natural Farming in India|url=http://www.fao.org/3/a-bl990e.pdf|publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations|access-date=25 January 2018}}</ref> Indian agriculturist Subhash Palekar has researched and written extensively on this method.

=== Passive rewilding === Similar to the idea of natural farming, passive rewilding is a restoration ecology method that minimizes human interference and allows land to recover its natural cover, habitat, processes on its own. Although this method is typically the "final" step in restoration, it alludes to the principles of natural farming in its "hands off" approach<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jepson|first1=Paul|title=Rewilding: the radical new science of ecological recovery|last2=Blythe|first2=Cain|date=2020|publisher=Icon Books Ltd|isbn=978-1-78578-627-3|series=Hot science|location=London}}</ref>'''<u>''.''</u>'''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Morel|first1=Loïs|last2=Barbe|first2=Lou|last3=Jung|first3=Vincent|last4=Clément|first4=Bernard|last5=Schnitzler|first5=Annik|last6=Ysnel|first6=Frédéric|date=January 2020|title=Passive rewilding may (also) restore phylogenetically rich and functionally resilient forest plant communities|url=https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.2007|journal=Ecological Applications|language=en|volume=30|issue=1|article-number=e02007 |doi=10.1002/eap.2007|pmid=31544280 |bibcode=2020EcoAp..30E2007M |issn=1051-0761|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== See also ==<!-- New links in alphabetical order please --> {{Portal|Systems science|Ecology}} {{Div col|colwidth=30em}} * Agrarianism * Agroecology * Biomimicry * Conservation agriculture * Ecoagriculture * Ethnobotany * Forest gardening * Green manure (plants) * Holzer Permaculture * Hydroculture * Korean natural farming * No-dig gardening * No-till farming * Seed saving {{div col end}}

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

== External links == * [http://www.finalstraw.org/ Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness] documentary exploring the natural farming philosophy in Korea, Japan, and USA (2015) * [https://natural-farming.org/en/ The Natural Farming Center of Greece]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Natural farming}} Category:Environmental conservation Category:Organic farming Category:Agriculture and the environment Category:Permaculture concepts Category:Agroforestry Category:Organic farming in Asia