Natural farming is a low-input, high-yield method of growing food that aims to create complex, self-regulating ecosystems. It requires no chemical inputs or minimal physical intervention. Natural farming techniques were developed in Japan by Masanobu Fukuoka between 1945-1975, and include no-tilling, broadcast seeding, and using biodiversity to control pests naturally. Permaculture, developed by Bill Mollison in Australia in the 1970s, takes a similar approach and uses principles like observing ecosystems and utilizing all resources and niches. Studies have found natural farming methods can yield equal or better than chemical farms while providing higher profits due to very low costs. However, these techniques are not yet widely used

1. NATURAL FARMING
A low-input, high-yield, nature-healing way of growing food.

2. Chinmay Soman

3. SCALE AND COMPLEXITY
Energy is captured most efficiently on the smallest scale
Complex biological systems are stable and productive
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4. TOWARDS ‘NATURAL’
A natural farm
Is a complex, self-regulating, designed ecosystem.
Contains a large variety of interdependent plants, animals, insects, birds
and microorganisms
Requires no chemical inputs and minimal physical intervention
Utilizes and enriches local natural resources
Produces high yields with minimal inputs
Chinmay Soman

5. ORIGINS
Natural Farming
Masanobu Fukuoka
Japanese plant pathologist
“How about not doing this?
How about not doing that?”
Developed during 1945-1975
Permaculture
Bill Mollison
Australian naturalist
Design “food forests” with
interacting components
Developed during the ‘70s
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6. NATURAL FARMING
When you get right down to it, there are few
agricultural practices that are really necessary.
The reason that man's improved techniques seem to be
necessary is that the natural balance has been so badly
upset beforehand by those same techniques and the land
has become dependent on them.
-Masanobu Fukuoka, in ‘The One Straw Revolution’
No Tilling No Fertilizers No Sowing No Pesticides
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7. NO TILLING
Saves labor, energy, and time
Prevents nutrient leeching and
soil erosion
Reduced CO2 and NOx emissions
Weeds can’t take hold
Soil is loosened, aerated and
mixed by organisms
Permanent ground cover
improves soil quality
Heavy equipment is avoided -
the soil stays loose naturally
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8. NUTRIENT REPLENISHMENT
Conventional farming
continuously removes
nutrients from the soil
Permanent ground cover of
white clover fixes nitrogen
All organic matter is returned
to the field to decompose
naturally (no active
composting)
Animal and bird manure is
used as a supplement
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9. BROADCAST SEEDING
Sowing protects seeds from
birds etc.
Cover crop and straw
provide protection - seeds
can be simply broadcast by
hand on the field
For extra protection, seeds
can be enclosed in ‘Seed
Balls’. (Red clay, compost,
seeds, water)
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10. CONTROL LIFE WITH LIFE
Monoculture has many unoccupied niches
where weeds and insects thrive
Insecticides kill natural predators, opening
up more opportunities for insect
population explosion
The variety of plants (including a few
weeds) promote predator and food
diversity
The absence of toxins enables natural
predators to exist, and control insect
population
Ground cover and straw hold weeds in
check
Fungal infections are rare in the healthy
ecosystem
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11. OTHER TECHNIQUES
Summer rice/Winter wheat
system
Crop rotation to further
replenish soil nutrients
No pruning of fruit trees
Orchards also have
leguminous ground cover
Vegetables and shrubs
under trees
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12. PERFORMANCE
Fukuoka consistently got yields equal or better than those on
chemical farms.
Natural farming has been adapted and practiced successfully
in various regions, including the temperate zone and the
tropics.
Due to the extremely low labor and capital requirements,
profitability is much higher than conventional farming.
Chinmay Soman

13. PERMACULTURE
Permaculture design is a method of assembling conceptual,
material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions
to benefit life in all its forms.
Each component should function in many ways, and serve the
needs and accept the products of other components.
The mature system should require the least possible maintenance,
and should produce a net surplus of energy over its lifetime.
- Bill Mollison, paraphrased from ‘Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual’
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14. DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Goals Cycles
Observation Connections
Resources Diversity
Patterns Stability
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15. UTILIZING RESOURCES
Small earthworks to trap and
store water
Fertility is in the biomass, not
in the soil
‘Weed’ plants continuously
mulched to provide nutrients
A variety of plants to occupy
all niches and harvest
maximum sunlight
Small animals control pests,
provide fertilizers, and produce
extra food
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16. OCCUPYING ALL NICHES
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17. THE ZONE SYSTEM
0 The Home 1 Vegetables Garden
2 Orchard, Beehives 3 Commercial Crop
4 Semi Wild, Foraging 5 Wilderness
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18. PERFORMANCE
Has been demonstrated in all climates
Increasingly popular sustainable land use method
Permaculture Centers are being established all over the
world to train more people
Academic and quantitative reports are required
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19. WHY STILL UNPOPULAR?
Inertia
Commercial force behind input-heavy traditional methods
Eschews reductionism - not popular academically
Requires experimentation to optimize for local conditions
Non-control
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20. Perhaps we cannot raise the winds. But each
of us can put up the sail, so that when the
wind comes we can catch it.
E. F. Schumacher
Small Is Beautiful
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21. CREDITS
Chinmay Soman has created this The following people created the
presentation in iWork ’09, and released Creative Commons licensed photos/
it under a Creative Commons graphics used in this presentation:
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Slide 1: Permaculture Research Institute,
DreamingKayaker
3.0 Unported License. This means that
Slide 2: Hideyuki Kamon, Andrea Bellamy, Youthkee
you are free to use and adapt
Slide 3: Gene Wilburn, IRRI, Björn Hermans, Autan
components of this presentation for
Slide 5: Permaculture Research Institute
noncommercial purposes, but are Slide 7: Ecoagriculture Partners
required to release resulting work with a Slide 8: Hideyuki Kamon, Kasper Manz
similar license, as well as attribute the Slide 9: Andrea Bellamy
components used to this author. The Slide 10: Parrhesiastes, Jeff DelViscio, Youthkee,
original work is available by request. Stavros Markopoulos
Slide 11: DreamingKayaker
For more resources and current Slide 14: Permaculture Research Institute
information, visit the blog at Slide 15: Graham Burnett (via Wikimedia Commons)
sustainable-farming.blogspot.com Slide 16: Cecilia Macaulay
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