stdClass Object ( [nid] => 319938 [vid] => 324792 [type] => task_discussion [status] => 1 [created] => 1308171732 [changed] => 1308171732 [comment] => 0 [promote] => 1 [sticky] => 0 [revision_timestamp] => 1308171732 [title] => agriculture [body] => Before considering any other activity in ag, start producing and selling locally. Then consider expanding. I will help. Below is how to farm and it requires only land and a corn cutter/machete, bush knife or what ever you call it. I know farmers farming 4 hectares this way, alone. Mark off a bed and start with it. You do not have to know everything to start; learn by doing. After that I can help more with seed for new crops, dvds, etc. Ken Hargesheimer GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK Wrokshops: USA - TX, MS, FL, CA, AR, NM; Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, Côté d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan, South Africa minifarms@gmail.com Workshops in organic, no-till, permanent bed gardening, mini-farming and mini-livestock farming, using bucket drip irrigation, worldwide, in English & Español Organic, No-till Gardening/Mini-Farming The solution to world hunger is teaching the farmers to farm profitably and sell locally. There is a grassroots movement, around the world, for families and groups to produce their own food due to cost, flavor and chemical contamination. "There's this belief that in order to stop poverty, we have to find ways to get people to stop being farmers. What we need to do is find ways to stop them from being poor farmers." Amy Smith, MIT This can feed the world regardless of how high the population goes. The following will do that! These are based on the internet, US & international agriculture magazines, experiences teaching agriculture in many countries, research data and farmer experiences in those countries and a demonstration garden. They are ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible, socially just and economically viable. Organic, no-till gardening/mini-farming [hand tools only] in permanent beds doubles or triples yields, reduces labor by 50% or more, reduces inputs/expenses to nearly 0 [need seed for new crops and green manure/cover crops], increases fertility, stops soil erosion [no rain water runoff], eliminates most weed, disease and insect problems and greatly increases profits. Use bucket drip irrigation [made by gardener/farmer] to produce during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall. These practices stopped the migration of farm families to the cities. [Honduras]. The majority of the food in develop-ing countries is produced by women farmers. They need help. There is unlimited, documented proof. There are 100,000,000 no-till hectares worldwide. Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years. At the time of my visits, an Indian farmer has been no-till [vegetables] for 5 years, a Malawi farmer has been no-till [vegetables] on permanent beds for 25 years and a Honduras farmer has been no-till [vegetables & fruit] on permanent beds on the contour (73° slope] for 8 years. Ruth Stout [USA] had a no-till garden for 30 years and 7,000 people visited her garden. No technique yet devised by man has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as 0-tillage (Baker) 1. Maintain healthy soil. Healthy soil produces healthy crops with highest yields and prevents most disease, pest, weed and erosion problems. 2. Increase the soil’s organic matter every year. 3. Little or no external inputs [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody except seed.] 4. Leave crop residue on top of soil. No burning and never make biochar. You are burning up fertilizer. Do not plow it into the soil; leave on top of the soil. 5. Plant green manure/cover crops to increase the soil organic matter. No alley cropping; hedgerows. 6. Plant the new crop in the crop residue by opening up a row or a place for the seed. 7. Plant every field every year [no fallow land] 8. 0-tillage: no plowing, no digging, no cultivating. No hard physical labor required so children and the elderly can farm easily. Farmers farm ten acres alone using hand tools only [Honduras] 9. Tree crops: fruit, nuts, coffee [shade-grown], etc. Use perennial cover crops 10. Permanent paths [walking] 11. Permanent beds. They were used 2000 BC in Guatemala, Mexico and many other countries. 15-25% of the land is in paths and that saves 15-25% of the seed, water and labor but yields will be higher. [No alley cropping] 12. Hand tools: machete, weed cutter, seeding hoe. Local blacksmith should make them. 13. Soil always covered. 14. Intercropping with legumes 15. Compost: Use the organic matter for mulch. If there is an excess, pile it up and use later. 16. SRI - system of rice intensification. Double yields, reduces water requirements by 50% and reduces labor. 17. SRI for other crops: sugar cane, finger millet, cotton, wheat, mustard, maize, teff, pulses, vegetables. 18. Muscovies for insect control, meat, eggs. 19. Bucket drip irrigation should be used during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall: Imported bucket drip kits are US$20-$25 in most countries. A bucket drip line can be made locally from poly tubing [US$3, Nicaragua]. One will irrigate a row of crops 33 meters long using only 20 liters of water per day. A dripline can be moved to irrigate several rows per day. Water can be from a stream, pond or well. A drip kit returns US$20 per month to the farmer [FAO study]. A. ecopreservationsociety.org/site/index.php/the-news/sustainability/237--whats-wrong-with-our-food-system-ted-talk-by-birke-baehr [Subtitled in many languages] I volunteer my time to teach workshops, worldwide, in English or Spanish. All expenses must be paid. Scheduled: 13 May-1 June, South Africa; June, Dallas; October, Indonesia. Ken Hargesheimer minifarms@gmail.com Dear Ken, Thank you for all the info. I am applying it in my own vegetable patch. It is working. Got half a pocket of potatoes off a square metre. So would imagine about 10 pounds per square yard. This off previously dead low, carbon soil. Sure next crop will be better. Got yams coming up on same spot already. Want to plant herbs and spices. I will send photos. Your advise is so simple. People do not believe me when I tell them. I am so excited about growing things now. This coming from a commercial plum farmer. May you be blessed this holy season a thousand times more than you blessed me with you help. Jeremy Karsen, middagkrans@mwebbiz.co.za We have already started several gardens in Jinkfuin community and the people working on them have benefitted from the DVDS we received from Ken. We watched the DVDs and got so many lessons and there women and men already running gardens, good ones! Lia, Kimilili I confirm Ken's advice. I've been using mulch and no-till since the late sixties. It works. It really works. I now manage a 5,000 ft² community garden in its fifth season. It started on hard clay with turf grass using cardboard and mulch. Leaves are added to the beds every fall and it has never been tilled. It's a beautiful, fruitful garden. I have friends who have sand and advised them to do the same. They've been very successful as well. It will work anywhere. Judith Hainaut Project room: Kyomya, Uganda We have been working on improving farming techniques for almost a year. Unfortunately, the farmers are planting small plots of land that only feed their family. There is no other choice but to try new techniques to improve the output of their plot. Ken Hargesheimer suggested the "no till" farming techniques as well as the "drip system". Both have proven effective at increasing production by at least 5 fold. The time is now for Kyomya to become a model agricultural village. [nabuur.com] [teaser] => Before considering any other activity in ag, start producing and selling locally. Then consider expanding. I will help. Below is how to farm and it requires only land and a corn cutter/machete, bush knife or what ever you call it. I know farmers farming 4 hectares this way, alone. Mark off a bed and start with it. You do not have to know everything to start; learn by doing. After that I can help more with seed for new crops, dvds, etc. Ken Hargesheimer GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK Wrokshops: USA - TX, MS, FL, CA, AR, NM; Mexico, Rep. 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