One Straw Revolution–Masanobu Fukuoka

[Stable-Man]

http://gyanpedia.in/tft/Resources/books/onestraw.pdf
By the way, there is a picture of a treadle thresher. Here’s his other book, The Natural Way of Farming:
http://www.rivendellvillage.org/Natural-Way-Of-Farming-Masanobu-Fukuoka-Green-Philosophy.pdf

This book was brought up in another forum I belong to, and I started reading it tonight. Fukuoka farmed what in the US would be considered a garden; quarter acre plots for grain, citrus tree orchard (many acres), vegetable garden, perfect sizes for experimentation. Anyway, he developed a method sort of similar to Ruth Stout and Edward Faulkner. The main principles are no cultivation, no weeding, no composting, etc. He broadcasted winter grain, clover, into a standing crop of rice, and once the rice was harvested he broadcasted rice and then returned the straw to the field. The straw from the clover, rice, and grains composts in the fields and also acts as a barrier to weeds, though some grow through.

While some may argue this doesn’t have much applicability outside of Japan, I’d disagree. Also, while the grains are removed from the field (thus removing some of the nutrients from returning to the earth) the addition of the clover which is not harvested makes up for the loss of the grain, at least he supposes such.

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