Fair Earth Farmshop 30 Jan 2010

Local farmers, environmentalists from Kachin State and some interested foreigners attended the latest Fair Earth Farm farmshop, bringing the numbers to over thirty. In a friendly and informal setting we discussed the goals of Fair Earth Farm and some of the principles and techniques which are used there. We also covered general principles of sustainable farming, including diversity, food forests, and how to create mutually beneficial relationships between different elements of a farm system.

The Kachin people discussed some of the challenges they face with farming in their environment, not least of which being a current crisis with the flowering of their bamboo forests. When bamboo flowers, all the plants die after setting huge amounts of seed. The standing bamboo wood becomes useless and there are no new shoots for food. The massive amounts of seed leads to an explosion in the number of rats.  The rats are unable to eat the bamboo seed after it germinates and then turn to any available food, especially the farmer’s crops and stores. This highlighted another benefit of food forests; although much of the food reserves were eaten by the rats, even some of the underground yams and tubers, food was still available from the rattans, fishtails and other edible palms.

This led us to our first exercise, which was a farm survey. Working on the premise that due to some catastrophe we were confined to the property for an indefinite period of time, the participants searched the farm to see what food would be available to eat right now. There were chickens, ducks and fish for protein and not counting the sacks of recently harvested rice, abundant cassava, taro and other yams for carbohydrates. Bananas, star fruit, green papayas and jackfruit were present, and green leafy crops were plentiful, not only in the annual garden beds, but also in the many shrubs, herbs and trees throughout the farm. There were plenty of spices and flavourings such as gingers, peppers and chillis as well as a wide array of medicinal herbs. One of the participants remarked that rather than identify what we could eat, it would have been much simpler to identify what we couldn’t eat, as it seemed that just about all of the several hundred species of plants on the property were edible. It soon became apparent that even our large group could live relatively well off the farm for quite some time.

This is one of the big advantages of polycultures: security. If you are just growing flowers, for instance, and there is a natural disaster, political crisis or economic collapse, you can’t eat your flowers. Similarly, if you grow say, only mangoes and they are not in season, you’re stuck.

Next came some practical workshops. There was a discussion about how the farm is conducting research and doing comparative trials of different methods. Jeff explained some of the practices and concepts of SRI (System of Rice Intensification) and we then planted a section of paddy using the SRI method where you use only a single seedling instead of a clump. Trials have shown that individual plants tiller more heavily and end up producing a better yield than ones planted in clumps; ’more for less’.We also practiced direct seeding using Kru Patum’s 1,2,3, drop seeding method, which is faster and ensures accurate spacing. For people with a bad back it’s a real winner, since it does not require any bending.

Soon after, was a demonstration of sheet mulch gardens using locally available materials, which in this case used waste cardboard, water hyacinth, rice straw, compost and manure. It included an explanation for the rationale behind it and the many advantages. Several participants commented how impressed they were with the enormous benefits of not having to weed. Weeding is easily the largest input of effort required to successfully grow annuals.

Sarah and Ah Choo rose to the occasion as usual and cooked a delicious meal for the masses, relying heavily on produce from the farm. What better way teach and demonstrate the success of a farm system than having working examples which provide food for the students?

Further discussions after lunch were followed by a hands on workshop on utilising green manure. A large bed of Sun Hemp (Crotalaria juncea) was cut and laid down, covered with water hyacinth, manure and straw and pockets of compost placed in to receive seeds of corn, sorghum, beans and pumpkins. It all happened very quickly and we had to try and restrain everyone a bit before the mulch bed looked more like a haystack, an example of many hands making light work!

The day was rounded off with further discussions of specifics and exchange of seeds and ideas. The deck overlooking the pond was the perfect place to take in the afternoon cool and enjoy the ambience and establish new friendships as well as strengthen existing ones.