Hi,

I'd love to help you.

Best regards,

Ritu

Hi,

I'd love to help you.

Best regards,

Ritu

I would like to help.

GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK
Wrokshops: USA - TX, MS, FL [ECHO], CA, AR, NM; Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, Côté d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan, South Africa [2011], Indonesia [2012], nabuur.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 Farming

The solution to world hunger is teaching the farmers to farm profitably. "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 There is unlimited, documented proof.
These are based on the internet, 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.
Poor, unhealthy soil is the reason for low yields. Here is the solution. Organic No-Till is not a fixed set of rules but a method that gardeners/farmers adapt to their local conditions. No one plows the jungle and it produces; no one plows the forest and it produces.
Organic, no-till farming, in permanent beds, with permanent paths, using only a machete/corn knife, doubles or triples yields compared to traditional farming, reduces labor 50% to 75%, reduces inputs-expenses to nearly 0 [buy only seed for new crops, green manure/cover crops], increases fertility, stops soil erosion [no rain water runoff], eliminates most weed, disease and insect problems and greatly increases profits if marketing. Use DIY drip or DIY bucket drip irrigation [made by farmer] to produce during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall.
SRI – system of rice intensification: 50%-100% increased yield, up to 90% reduction in required seed, up to 50% savings in water. SRI principles and practices have been adapted for rain-fed rice.
SCI – system of crop intensification: wheat, sugarcane, millet, maize and teff with yield increases.

With no-till, organic matter [green manure/cover crops or weeds or crop residue] generates the following results:
 The mulch gradually rots into the soil providing a constant supply of nutrients while eliminating composting.
 Moisture retention due to the mulch layer means reduced need for watering; saving both resources and labor.
 Mulch prevents weeds from growing, reducing another laborious chore.
 Because of greater nutrients, plants can be positioned twice as densely as normally recommended.
 The combination of denser spacing and healthy soil means a fourfold increase in yield. Josef Graf

These practices stopped the migration of farm families to the cities. [Honduras]. There are 262,000,000 acres in no-till and 85,000,000 acres organic, worldwide.

Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been organic, no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years. At the time of my visits the following were organic, no-till: an Indian farmer [vegetables] for 5 years, a Malawi farmer [vegetables] on permanent beds for 25 years [model mini-farm] and a Honduras farmer [vegetables & fruit] on permanent beds on the contour (73° slope] for 8 years. Ruth Stout [USA] had a garden for 30 years and 7,000 people visited her garden. I have been on farms where the farmer, alone, farms 10 acres [4 hectares], using only a machete/corn knife.
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. Financial: Little funds are needed. No tractor, no equipment, no fertilizers, no chemicals.
2. Inter-urban, urban, peri-urban [use land free?]
3. Restore the soil to its natural health. Contaminations: inorganic pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fertilizers
4. Maintain healthy soil: Healthy soil produces healthy plants, for high yields.
5. Feed the soil; not the crop: Inorganics feed the plants and poisons the soil. Organics feed the soil which feeds the plants.
6. Increase soil organic matter every year
7. Soil always covered Weeds are Nature’s soil cover.
8. Feed the soil through the mulch.
9. Use green manure/cover crops.
10. Manure-animal and human [humanurehandbook.com]
11. Intercropping and/or crop rotation
12. Use external organic matter [leaves, etc]
13. Leave all crop residues on top of the soil.
14. No-till - no digging, no tilling, no cultivating Worms and roots till the soil.
15. Permanent beds
16. Permanent paths
17. Sloped land: permanent beds on the contour. On steep slope each bed is dropped down the slope [email for instructions]. No alley cropping, no swales, no pit beds, no key-hole beds.
18. Hand tools: machete/corn knife, planting hoe, etc
19. All year production: DIY hoop houses, high tunnels, shade cloth, row covers, etc.
20. Organic pesticides, herbicides if ever needed
21. Do not buy anything except seed
22. Seed - Open-pollinated
23. Tree crops: fruit, coffee [shaded], nuts,. Perennial cover crop.
24. Crops: vegetables, fruits, nuts, fibers, gourds, oils, flowers, herbs, grains
25. Muscovies [eats flies, mosquitos: no housing, etc. In every country]
26. Gray water – use for irrigation
27. Bucket drip irrigation should be used during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall: A bucket drip line can be made locally using poly tubing [US$3, Nicaragua]. One, 33 meters, will irrigate a row of crops using only 20 liters of water per day. A drip line 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].
28. Markets: farm stand, cooperative, farmer’s market
29. Imitate nature. Most farmers fight nature. ¡Nature always wins!

http://rodaleinstitute.org/20101005_birke-baehr-food-fighter-and-future-...

I volunteer my time to teach workshops, worldwide, in English or Spanish, when all expenses are paid. Scheduled: Ft Worth TX; Liberia, Nov

Ken Hargesheimer, minifarms@gmail.com

Free farming dvd on request

"Plowing the land over and over damages the soil almost as much as chemical weed killers do. It kills off nitrogen-fixing bacteria." Onmivore's Dilemma
“No one has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing. It can be said with truth that the use of the plow has actually destroyed the productiveness of our soils.” Edward Faulkner
Plow to kill the weeds; that brings to the surface more seeds to sprout; more weeds to plow up.

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. 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. Jeremy Karsen, South Africa

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

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]

Ken has instructed us that by introducing cover crops we will improve the organic nature of the soil. This involves less work than the previous method and has resulted in double the yield from crops where this method has been implemented.’ Busukuma, nabuur.com

Thank you so much for the love and willing to help SOW TO HARVEST FOUNDATION to get a website.please i would like to know the things/information you will need from us to start the website.please can you kindly reply through this e-mail address so that i can give you all the necessary information you may need.
greenvillage1@yahoo.com
my regards,
Nana.

SOW TO HARVEST FOUNDATION is thanking you so much,your message was well read and all the contents well noted.sow to harvest foundation will be so glad to partner with you to give us ideas of how to farm to enable us achieve the dream of hunger eradication in Ghana and Africa as a whole.please kindly contact us on,
greenvillage1@yahoo.com
my regards,
Nana

Mail me if you need help.
I'd love to help.

I'd love to help. Send me a message if help is still needed!
Isabel

Thank you so much for the love and willing to help SOW TO HARVEST FOUNDATION to get a website.please i would like to know the things/information you will need from us to start the website.please can you kindly reply through this e-mail address so that i can give you all the necessary information you may need.
greenvillage1@yahoo.com
my regards,
Nana.

Thank you so much for the love and willing to help SOW TO HARVEST FOUNDATION to get a website.please we would like to know the things/information you will need from us to start the website.please can you kindly reply through this e-mail address so that we can give you all the necessary information you may need.Thank you.
greenvillage1@yahoo.com
my regards,
Nana.

Hello,

I hope this will be of great help only if your organisation doesn't have a website, they do everything to help small organisations around the world with websites. Find information and contact form at http://www.freetocharities.org.uk/freetocharities/index.php
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For and on behalf of Luhwahwa Youth Development Foundation (LUYODEFO)