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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] The sacred art and science of composting
  • Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:13:08 -0600


The sacred art and science of composting
In the second of three essays on teaching organic farming methods in Ghana,
Paul reflects on the scientific method, calcium deficiencies, and the
far-reaching benefits of soil organic matter
http://www.newfarm.org/columns/research_paul/2005/aug05/ghana2.shtml
By Paul Hepperly August 11, 2005

Editors' note:
As New Farm Research and Training Manager at The Rodale Institute, Dr. Paul
Hepperly has been a regular contributor to NewFarm.org for some time,
providing research updates, op-ed pieces, and white papers on topics like
carbon sequestration in organic farming systems.

Traditional agriculturists understand that soil is the most important
aspect of crop support. The earth nurtures plants just as a mother nurtures
her child. Reliance on synthetic fertilizers, on the other hand, sacrifices
soil (the mother) by seeking to feed the crop (or child) directly. Feeding
the mother will automatically care for the child.

In talking about composting to extension agents in Ghana, my goal was to
include scientific information while concentrating on practical,
traditional African composting methods. Composting aligns well with
traditionally held values in Ghana, and I emphasized that it was an honored
task, practiced by their forefathers.

As we assembled our compost pits, we enlisted the help and support of the
neighboring villagers. When we finished, we gathered in a circle around the
pile and I asked the participants to join hands. Be grateful for a kind
mother who nurtures grateful hearts; this feeds our soul. Show your
gratefulness to the source of life by recognizing Earth as the Mother and
taking care of Her. We promised to share the bounty of the compost.

Then I asked each participant to press his or her hand into the pile. This
represented how each of us had put their hands and hearts into this
project. The hand is the gateway to the heart when our labor represents our
heartfelt emotions. These sentiments feed the living compost on the
nonphysical level.

Tropical soils: Challenges and opportunities

As I mentioned last time, about two-thirds of the world's tropical soils
are red acid soils, notoriously low in plant nutrients. In Ghana, red acid
soils constitute about 80 percent of the soil base, and farmers complain
that it is getting harder and harder to wrest productivity from the land.
Improving agricultural productivity in Ghana and other tropical areas
clearly depends on improving management of red acid soils.

In a previous column I wrote about the ‘terra preta do Indio,’ or
Indian black soils. These intriguing soils are derived from red acid
oxisols and ultisols, the oldest and generally least fertile of all soil
families. Unlike their parent soils, however, the Indian black soils are
extremely productive, and demonstrate the great potential for transforming
red acid soils by increasing their soil organic matter content. Although we
see eroding and deteriorating soils in many parts of the world, we can take
heart because not only can this be stopped, it can even be reversed under
what appear to be the most limiting of conditions.

This is the essence of Robert Rodale’s concept of regenerative
agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is partly inspired by Sir Albert
Howard’s experience working with impoverished red acid tropical soils in
British colonial India. Modern windrow composting is a variation on the
"Indore Compost Method," refined by Sir Albert from ancient Indian
composting practices. In Africa, we need to go beyond sustainable
agriculture because with the present poor resource base we will not be able
to feed the growing population just by being sustainable. Instead, we need
to re-capacitate or regenerate soils, farms, and communities. Sir Albert
called this the Law of Return--we must feed the soil properly if it is to
feed us properly.

The Rodale Institute® farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, was founded on
worn-out agricultural soils that have now been regenerated. Through organic
farming methods such as the use of compost, cover cropping and rotations we
have not only sustained a thin, perishable soil layer but built it to a
point where we routinely surpass neighboring conventional yields.

Some soil scientists dismiss acid red tropical soils as being incorrigibly
unproductive. But these soils do have valuable qualities: in general, they
are deep, well drained and can be worked with machinery shortly after heavy
rains. Just as we cannot afford to have children left behind in their
educational experience, we definitely need to "leave no soil behind" in the
effort to support our growing world population.

>From an agricultural development perspective, the question should be: How
do we most effectively convert acid red soils into black, fertile soils? To
a large extent, the answer is, by boosting organic matter levels through
the use of compost.

The Rodale Institute® farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, was founded on
worn-out agricultural soils that have now been regenerated. Through organic
farming methods such as the use of compost, cover cropping and rotations we
have not only sustained a thin, perishable soil layer but built it to a
point where we routinely surpass neighboring conventional yields.

Some soil scientists dismiss acid red tropical soils as being incorrigibly
unproductive. But these soils do have valuable qualities: in general, they
are deep, well drained and can be worked with machinery shortly after heavy
rains. Just as we cannot afford to have children left behind in their
educational experience, we definitely need to "leave no soil behind" in the
effort to support our growing world population.

>From an agricultural development perspective, the question should be: How
do we most effectively convert acid red soils into black, fertile soils? To
a large extent, the answer is, by boosting organic matter levels through
the use of compost.

Organic matter neutralizes constraints of acid soils

Red acid soils exhibit both low fertility and potential toxicity to plants.
An acid red soil lacking in soil organic matter can solubilize large
amounts of metals, notably aluminum and manganese. When these metallic ions
dominate the soil solution, they block the absorption and activity of
essential nutrients such as calcium, resulting in reduced yields or even
crop failure.

Increasing soil organic matter can solve both of these problems together.
Native clay and humic materials both have an overall negative electrostatic
charge, so they are mutually repellant. Organic matter overcomes this
repellency by forming a stabilized product of native clay and humic
material, bridged together by polyvalent, positively charged ions such as
aluminum, iron, manganese and calcium.

As the organic matter and clay complexes form, aluminum ions are pulled out
of the soil solution. Once aluminum is captured in an insoluble complex of
clay and organic matter, calcium absorption and movement in the plant roots
and tops is no longer impeded.

Besides eliminating nutrient interference, soil organic matter itself
serves as a rich source of nutrients for plant growth. Organic matter works
to expand the nutritional support potential of the soil, fostering more
optimum plant growth. It also allows more water to penetrate the soil and
remain there to be taken up by plants. A soil optimized in organic matter
helps protect plants from periodic drought.

Aluminum toxicity

When plants develop aluminum toxicity in an acid soil environment, they
look like someone cut off their root tips. The condition is called terminal
deficiency because it affects the outermost cells and tissues. Blossom-end
rot in tomatoes is a form of terminal deficiency. (In humans the effects of
insufficient calcium are as dramatic as in plants--the breakdown of bone
structure called osteoporosis.)

Tip necrosis due to insufficient calcium can result from the use of
ammoniated fertilizer or prevented by calcium fertilization. Acidity from
ammoniated fertilizers drives aluminum ions into solution, interfering with
calcium uptake and movement in plants. Adding calcium can take aluminum out
of solution and serve as a direct source for plant nutrition. Calcium salts
provided to the plant through foliar applications, however, will have no
effect on root health, because calcium only moves upward within plant
tissue.

Calcium plays many crucial roles in plant physiology, including bridging
and linking cells by interacting at cell walls and membranes. Water
availability, in turn, is critical to the movement of calcium within
plants--fluctuating water stress predisposes plants to blossom-end rot.
Soil organic matter, with its ability to buffer water fluctuations, plays
an important role in preventing water stress.

Although a calcium salt solution can remedy both aluminum toxicity and
calcium deficiency, calcium salts cannot help soil percolate or hold water
the way organic matter does. Knowing this, we can understand aluminum
toxicity as an induced calcium deficiency that can be resolved by organic
matter. Organic matter is the bulwark of soil, maintaining both proper
moisture availability and aeration. No chemical salt can substitute for
these functions.

>From all of these perspectives, soil improvement with optimized organic
matter makes sense. Salts can in some instances remedy the symptoms of soil
infertility, but they provide none of the long-term benefits of increased
soil organic matter.

Black organic matter is the real green revolution

Conventional ammoniated fertilizers exacerbate existing soil acidity.
Ammoniated fertilizer does not feed soil organic matter but instead
stimulates decomposition, resulting in lower soil organic matter content.
The nitrogen component of conventional fertilizer has no duration from
season to season and requires similar or greater applications for every
crop, every season.

The Rodale Institute's Compost Utilization Trial compared the effects of
fertilizer, raw manure and compost on crop productivity, soil health, and
environmental quality. Interestingly, although all approaches were equally
effective in optimizing crop productivity, compost was the only approach
that also improved soil health and environmental quality. Compost improved
soil organic matter and nitrogen levels while simultaneously lowering
nutrient losses to ground and surface water. Compost also increased crop
nutrient content. Fortunately, composting is a traditional technology
practiced throughout the developing world.

In Africa there is little infrastructure to support widespread liming and
other conventional agriculture approaches by small farmers. As a result,
concentrating on fertilizer “solutions” leads to the problem Ghana's
small farmers complain about: poor soils becoming worse.

Raising soil organic matter opens the soil texture, allowing both air and
water to penetrate and stimulating soil microbial life. In The Rodale
Institute Farming Systems Trial, we have found that improved soil organic
matter levels can increase water penetration by as much as 50 percent. This
contributes to the ability of plants to make do on limited water supplies.
In many developing areas, including northern Ghana, water is not optimized
and improving the soil is the best way to stabilize crop productivity.

As natural materials, soil organic matter and compost are very complex in
their composition and action. This complexity intrigues and confuses
scientists. There is no formula for humic material; rather it exists as a
mixed class of an infinite number of compounds, representing a wide array
of biological products from diverse organisms and defying chemical
definition.

In the Western scientific method, a lot of emphasis is given to how things
work, their mechanism of action. The biological processes at work in
organic agricultural systems, however, are much more complex than the
simple actions of chemical salts.

If we limit ourselves to interacting only with things we completely
understand, we are left with a poor set of tools indeed. Often, the things
we do not understand are more powerful than the things we do understand.

Many Western scientists simply do not want to deal with things they don’t
understand. Traditional knowledge allows for a more humble approach, basing
practice on experience even when the mode of action is not completely
understood.

It would be most unfortunate to select technologies of lesser potential
because we believe we understand them better. Rather than take that limited
track, we should put more effort on traditional processes, which offer more
even though they are less well understood.

Western technology is extremely powerful, but it should complement
indigenous knowledge, not replace it. Western scientific methods need to be
tempered by ethics, or the technological result will ultimately be sterile.

Modern insecticides and fertilizers are examples of sterile technologies.
Both are also extensions of war technologies. The fact that we understand
precisely how they work does not obscure the fact that they were designed
to kill. We need values to reverse the problems we have created with such
technologies.

One of my favorite things I saw while I was in Ghana was a sign on the side
of a passenger van that read, “Man no be God.” When man uses technology
in self-serving and destructive ways, he takes an ignorant and egotistical
approach.

An unfortunate side effect of scientific endeavor is egoistical thinking.
Frequently, we know less about our actions and how they affect natural
balances than we think. As we eliminate pesky insects, for instance, we
also eliminate pollinators and other beneficial organisms.

Basing our crop production systems on poisons and attempting to replace the
soil life force with simple chemical salts are perfect examples of science
and technology running amok.

The Hippocratic Oath enjoins physicians to "first, do no harm." Agronomists
and other crop advisors should observe a similar rule. Even many advocates
of chemically intensive agriculture now understand that substantial damage
is being done to the environment.

It is better for us to work with nature and be aware of its greatness. By
casting life as the enemy, we set up a conflict against ourselves, for we
are part of the web of life. In truth, we will "win" only if nature
prevails, and we fall short of our goals.





  • [Livingontheland] The sacred art and science of composting, TradingPostPaul, 08/31/2006

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