Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - [Market-farming] Effective Micro-organisms + Indigenous Micro-organisms

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Steve Diver <steved AT ncat.org>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Effective Micro-organisms + Indigenous Micro-organisms
  • Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 13:46:34 -0600

The leaflet and recipe that you posted are from the
Korean system known as IM (Indigenous Microorganisms).

They were developed in the 1960s by Han Kyo Cho with
Korean Natural Farming Association. The IMO system
has come into English-language awareness in the last few
years from the book by Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama
and from the workshops by Gil Carandang in the Philipines.
Korean Natural Farming: Indigenous Microorganisms and
Vital Power of Crop/Livestock
Han Kyu Cho and Atsushi Koyama
Korean Natural Farming Association, 1997. 172 p.

EM (Effective Microroganisms) were developed in the 1980s
by Dr. Teruo Higa at the University of the Ryukyus in
Okinawa, Japan. It was widely adapted and gained
international recognition through Kyusei Nature Farming.

It is easy to get a bottle of EM mother culture and
brew a batch of activated EM (liquid culture)) or make
EM bokashi (solid culture). The results are consistent and
reliable, for the most part.

With IM you rely on local biomass to culture local
microflora. The results can vary. It might take first-hand
training to gain the same level of confidence that you'd
like to have as a farmer, by comparison to a known
mother culture brewed with "type-cultured" microbes.

On the other hand, the recipes and biomass sources
used as a substrate to culture microbes and transform
organic wastes into valueable biofertilizers are suprisingly
similar between IM and EM. After all, the practical applications
of IM and EM arise from nature farming systems.

In some of the developing countries where nature farming
systems are widely employed, the intense poverty and
self sufficient nature of farming is readily apparent.
The ability to "purchase" an off-farm input, a bottle of
microbial inoculant, is severe restricted. In these places
"making your own" is appealing and also leads to further
nnovations.

Steve Diver
http://www.attra.ncat.org


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Karen Sutherland wrote:

Al-Mario Casimir & Ian Alexander prepared a pamphlet for the Organic Desk of the Division of Agriculture here in Dominica explaining how to produce your own EM using local organisms.

..... etc .....







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page