in farming most of the work done by nature. But modern technological innovations influence this process in different ways and with the time this natural farming is dragging away from nature to man made practices and mechanisms. now agriculture is no more considered as practice that is blend with nature. now it is another industry that is totally nature independent.
our forefathers use to prepare land next to their villages based on natural cycle. during dry seasons they cleared the land. they never enter to dense forests for agriculture that dense forest was considered as sacred area. they cleared the secondary forest that is in between dense forest and village even this clearing they never cut the large trees they cleared bushes and ground cover then they burn that cleared under layer of the forest. burned tree ashes and naturally enriched fertile soil provided enough fertilizer to cultivation.
cultivation is most interesting factor they did no till cultivation they sow seeds it was a mixture of seeds finger millet, mustard, chilies, cucumbers, were in the mix. ash mounts selected for planting ash pumpkins, and pumpkins. corn seeds were plant in different places and later legumes planted and corn plant used as live aid for legume vain growth. this farming system is replicating natural environment farmers plant different plants in one location it is not mono culture it is mixture of plants. therefore plants dose not competitive for soil nutrient different plant has different need. farmers do not apply fertilizers they use existing nutrients in soil. after use that land plot several times they clear new area and leave that used land to recover back with help of nature.
this methods have several drawbacks but we have something to learn. farmers use nature and they just adjust to the nature. they depend on rain water. nitrogen input is coming from previous years wild plant fixed nitrogen and animal feces and remaining but most of the nitrogen coming with rain water by lightning reactions. potassium coming from plant ash and soil provide phosphorus. other micro nutrients are also coming from soil.
farmers understood that in nature you cant find one plant species at a single location it is always a mixture. that plant diversity help one plant to another. legumes fix nitrates, mustard repel insects, corn help other plants to rise up. so on each plant help other plant to grow. our grandfathers understood this.
in natural farming farmers were use to cultivate local crop verities that was suitable to local conditions. by this these crops provided best yield at the same time these crops were resistent to local pest attacks because these crops were selections from longer period of time by testing with natural conditions.
when we see about this we can understand few things
- minimum inputs use in this natural farming instead of inputs farmers adhere to natural system.
- plant diversity and local crop verities
- minimal damage to nature
- yield is clean and pure
some times we could not do the same but we can learn much and adopt these at our farms too.
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