Saturday, September 1, 2012

Fertilization in Natural farming


Generally people think that there is no need of any fertiliser in natural farming. Fukuoka san talks about fertilization in his book, natural way of farming. In the chapter 'Rice and Winter Grain' under the sub-heading ' Direct Seeding, No-Tillage Barley/Rice Succession with Green Manure Cover' there is a topic called Fertilization and the book reads as follows..

"Following the rice harvest, spread 650-900 pounds of chicken manure per quarter acre either before or after returning the rice straw to the fields. An additional 200 pounds may be added in late February as a topdressing during barley heading stage.

After the barley harvest, manure again for the rice. When high yields have been collected, spread 450-900 pounds of dried chicken manure before or after returning the barley straw to the field. Fresh manure should not be used here as this can harm the rice seedlings. A later application is generally not needed, but a small amount (200-450 pounds) of chicken manure may be added early during the heading stage, preferably the 24th day of heading. This may of course be decomposed human or animal wastes or even wood ashes".

So there is fertilization done in natural farming, but it is much less effort in just scattering in chicken manure. May be this was not considered as fertilizer, rather just a decomposing agent for straw. So whoever gets into natural farming should observe these facts very closely, before concluding that no fertiliser is required for natural farming.

6 comments:

wave said...

Hi Nanda, Wondering how would actually the chicken manure work in helping the plants to grow. Is it directly absorbed by the roots ? or it will create a conducive environment for the earthworms to grow ?

thanks,
Seshu

Unknown said...

Hi Nanda,

Very happy to see your blog, came to know about it from whiteClover on farmnest.

Of course your experience is going to help me as I am also doing the same thing you have already done.

Kindly visit http://www.rameshwari.com and suggest some measure if you can.

Best regards

Nandakumar said...

As per Fukuoka chicken manure is used to aid in decomposition of straw. But at one point, he also mentions that too much may cause problem and he had experienced such incidents. But I am sure, some part may be absorbed by roots, but finding out how much etc..is not really needed. Analysing nature in this way may not be required also


Regards,
Nandan

Nandakumar said...

Thanks Sheo ..

Interesting to see more and more people from IT coming to farming field..

As of now, I just follow Fukuoka's principle...fertilisation with cow dung is not started...but has that plan.

I don't see any grains in the list..probably you can start - finger millet, pearl millet etc..and rice for one season.


Regards,
Nandan

varaahan said...

Chicken manure is very rich in urea than cow dung. Fresh chicken manure is unsuitable as fertilser as this would harm the plants. Isolate the chicken manure for about 45 days and then apply to the fields and it will work wonders.

Another alternative is to allow goats / sheep to rest on the farm during night time ( before sowing )and their waste is highly nutritious to the plants.

Nandakumar said...

Thanks for this useful information.

Regards,
Nandan