permaculture

[lfl@intrex.net]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: Re: Sustainable farming
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 09:50:08 -0400
From: LAURA MARIE DININNI <lmd242@PSU.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 00:43:00 +0000
From: Wayne Tyson <landrest@utm.net>
To: Mountain Forum - Asia <mf-asia@lyris.bellanet.org>
Subject: Re: Sustainable farming

Honorable Forum and Devinder Sharma:

As the son of a Texas USA "dry-armer" (no irrigation) and
retired ecosystem restoration consultant, I may have some
qualifications to offer a hearty assent to Devinder's essay.

As in the "Six Cows and a Jersey" parable, it is quite possible
that neither the Indian farmer nor the USA's highly-hyped
"precision farming" is "the answer" to making the best of
variations in climate. I strongly doubt that the highly
mechanized farming techniques of the USA are any more efficient
 than the small farms of India. In fact, many smaller US farms
are more efficient, and particularly more resilient (able to
make the best of seasonal environmental variations). Whether
or not this is also true of India, I can't say for certain,
but I believe it's safe to say the there is no reason why
Indian farmers can't be as efficient as any farmer in the USA,
and more efficient than the corporate mega-farms.

Corporate industrial farming in the USA is highly subsidized
by the government, and the availability of cheap commercial
fertilizers and water for irrigation makes them profitable,
but not efficient. It is important to understand the crucial
distinction between profitability and efficiency. I strongly
suspect that the Indian farmer is more efficient in terms of
net productivity than the US industrial farms when all relevant
factors are honestly and completely evaluated.

In any case, neither can expect to produce more than the
productive potential of the land, and the one universal constant
is the amount of water actually AVAILABLE to the plant; how
much water the plant can assimilate to enable it to convert
minerals into biomass. Even Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMO) cannot evade this limitation.

It is a limitation, but different strategies can be used to
make more efficient use of the amount of soil moisture actually
present during the cropping cycle. Most farming fails to do
this. Most farmers fail to crop in such a way as to make the
most of the water they have (this is what dry-farmers do). Most
persist in planting the same crops, whether or not they are
suitable for the varying conditions on any one farm or region.
I'm now at the point where it would be necessary to get technical,
but there are a number of techniques that can be used to farm
efficiently under all environmental conditions. All one must do
is to look at the reality one is faced with and follow sound
principles.

The indigenous Hopi people (ironically called "Indians") of
the Southwest USA were and are dry-farmers, and they farm on
desert land where "drought" is a way of life. The would fail
if they followed the practices of "precision farming" or any
other formula. They have learned to think the way their crops
think. Their corn "fields" are desert sands, but they always
harvest some corn. They do not attempt to produce more corn than
their fields (and the available soil moisture) is capable of
producing. Their fields contain far fewer corn plants, spaced
wide apart, but they harvest corn where the ordinary farmer
would harvest nothing. Their practice is derived from an
objective knowledge of the environment in which they farm and
the principles of plant-soil-water relations.

The same principles can be used anywhere. The principles are
not limited those related to water, but those are the most
important. Prevention of soil erosion and degradation is important
too, but Indian farmers do not need to import technology from
the USA or anywhere else to be successful. They must, however,
either use the knowledge they have or question their assumptions
and change them if they want to succeed. Probably both. They could
set an example from which the farmers in the USA could learn
something. At the very least, they should be skeptical of
international corporations that try to sell them on the idea that
they need buy GMO seed, fertilizer, equipment and technology from
them to succeed. The same sleight-of-hand that was used in the
"Green Revolution" lurks behind the surface here. Don't buy it.
All you need is to think in terms of the relevant principles.
That's more than all the professors on all the universities that
suck on tax money are doing.

Respectfully submitted,
WT

--
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com