[lifesaviors] Minifarms.com on Raised Bed Agriculture
- From: "Lion Kuntz" <lionkuntz@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lifesaviors@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 05:03:56 +0800
http://topsoil.nserl.purdue.edu/nserlweb/isco99/pdf/ISCOdisc/tableofcontents.htm
http://topsoil.nserl.purdue.edu/nserlweb/isco99/pdf/ISCOdisc/SustainingTheGlob
alFarm/P058-Bunch.pdf
http://www.minifarms.com/rba.html
Introduction to RBA
For home gardening raised bed agriculture means: less work, less irrigation,
improved soil, higher yields and no poisons. For market gardeners, mini-farmers
and mini-ranchers it means all the above plus profits. People can have a
comfortable income, a high quality lifestyle, provide a great service to their
community and it's a great way to raise children.
RBA creates a healthy soil to grow healthy plants to provide healthy food to
feed
healthy people. For the human population to be healthy, we need to consume
healthy foods [organic] which come from healthy animals eating healthy plants
grown in healthy soil [C Scheaffer, VMD/holistic].
Health:
People suffer due to very poor diets. The greatest benefit of RBA isn't the
increased yields but the better nutrition provided to the families. This
reduces
their medical needs tremendously.
Agriculture is in a crisis worldwide. The Green Revolution is not ecologically
sound, economically viable or socially responsible. The "Green Revolution",
which attempted to impose inappropriate crops and techniques in the Andes, has
been a miserable failure. [The same is true around the world. KH] Srs. I.
Garaycochea and J. Palao refer to the remains of twisted windmills, cracked
irrigation canals and rusted out tractors littering the rural countryside as
the
"archaeology of development". It is ironic that the groups promoting the Green
Revolution had to destroy ancient agriculture fields, to introduce the
inappropriate
technology and capital-intensive farming practices.
"The prehispanic raised fields are classified on government maps "for wildlife
use only". It is a good thing that those ancient farmers didn't have access to
those
maps!"
C. Erickson, UPA.
The Green Revolution makes farmers depend on, even economic slaves to,
agribusiness and multinational corporations: Cargill\Monsanto, ConAgra,
Novartis\ADM and others. Their goal is to increase profits and to control the
world's food supply from research to production to consumer by controling seed,
fertilizers and chemicals. These seeds must have chemicals sprayed on them to
produce and the seed can not be saved for the next crop.
"These companies tell the US patent office that the plants are novel and unique
to
get a patent but they tell the FDA/EPA that that they are natural and not new
and
not subject to regulations." [S. Ogden, Straight-Ahead Organics, 1999].
Other corporations are beginning to market irradiated food which may be
dangerous to our health. Most governments, USAID, most ag extension services
and ag universities in most countries help the companies by promoting the use
of
their products. They are more interested in export crop production than in food
crops to feed local people.
"If I had taken what I learned about agriculture at Texas A & M University to a
third
world country, I would have starved to death". Mike Sullivan, ECHO, Ag Missions
Conference 1998, quoting his son.
The world's farmers can produce all the food the world's population requires,
regardless of how high it goes, using RBA.
Note: A salesman promotes chemical fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, etc
and
gets paided by the chemical company from the sale. Promoters of organic
gardening and farming have nothing to sell.
They were used in Asia [Indonesia, China, Vietnam, PNG], Latin America [Mexico,
Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru], Europe [France] and USA [Indians] for centuries.
They
are now being used in Kenya, Nigeria and a few other countries. I saw a few in
the 60's while living in Guatemala. They are being restored in Peru and
Bolivia.
"It was proven that labor costs were low, harvests were bountiful, production
was
sustainable and the technology could be managed by individual families using
available tools." [Bolivia] C. Erickson, UPA.
On the Web:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cerickso/applied.html
http://archaeology.about.com/msubfarm.htm
http://archaeology.about.com/blinterviews.htm
Regardless of the quality of the land, these principles will make it highly
fertile.
1. Maximize organic matter production
2. Keep the soil covered
3. Use zero tillage
4. Maintain biological diversity
5. Feed plants through the mulch.
Roland Bunch, COSECHA
Organic:
All gardeners and farmers were organic until the use of chemicals in WW II [to
kill
people then, insects now]. They kill soil micro-organisms and worms. No one
has the right, moral or legal, to poison the air, soil or water.
"Organic gardening and farming is more than avoiding chemicals. The organic
method requires a change of attitude and a different thought process." [H.
Garrett,
DMN]
RBA does not require the purchase of any outside inputs. The present generation
knows nothing about raised beds or organics because their fathers and
grandfathers have used chemicals since the 1950s. Therefore, they must be
taught.
[Read: From The Good Earth, by M. Ableman, http://www.dirtdoctor.com]
RBA allows people to feed themselves on a local basis that provides total
community food security and is a proven food production system that is
ecologically sound, economically viable, socially responsible and Biblically
based.
A. Organic, biointensive, double dug, permanent raised beds which can double or
even triple the yield while reducing the labor by half compared to traditional
gardening. Using this, a family can grow all their food for a vegetarian diet
on 300
MÂ<sum>. http://www.bountifulgardens.org
This works [USA: Chadwick Garden & market garden, Ecology Action; CET, Chile;
Manor House Ag Center, Kenya; ECOPOL, Mexico; IIRR, Baptist Rural Life Center,
Philippines] and the proof is there for all to see. This is used by home
gardeners
and small market gardeners.
B. Organic, permanent raised beds can increase yields, stop erosion and reduce
labor. Land sloping up to 75% can be farmed without erosion. I saw them in
Honduras after hurricane Mitch. This works [COSECHA & CIDICCO, Honduras; M
Fukuoka, Japan; Centro de EducacÃ-on y TecnologÃ-a, Chile; IIRR, BRLC,
Philippines; M Cain, USA; Vietnam: VACVINA] and the proof is there for all to
see.
[read Plowman's Folly, by E. H. Faulker; Weeds-Control Without Chemicals, by
Walters. Video: Necessity of Organic Resides, by R. Parnes]. This is used by
home gardeners, market gardeners and mini-farmers.
Hand labor with hand tools is used such as hoes, shovels, rakes, digging forks,
machetes. Hand tools: Scythe - cuts grass, harvest grain; Hedge clipper - long
handles for trimming/cutting back growth of hedges, trellises, etc; Lopper -
long
handles for cutting limbs; Wheel Hoe - walk-behind with various implements;
Planter - walk-behind which drops seed; Spreader - walk-behind which spreads
fertilizer, etc.
The above boasts two advantages which no other production system can claim.
First, it is easier on the soil than mechanized methods. Second, it is the
least
expensive method in terms of capital outlay. For mini-farms this method is not
only economically viable but superior to the alternatives. Jeff Rast,
Countryside,
Nov/Dec 98.
C. Alley-cropping: Raised beds between rows of trees [food, oils, chemicals,
medicinals, spices, beverages, crafts, lumber, forages, firewood, windbreaks,
industrials, etc] which are a planned crop.
http://www.winrock.org
http://www.treesftf.org
http://www.unl.edu/nac
This works and the proof [USA; Nigeria, IITA; Philippines, IIRR, BMRLC; Costa
Rica] is there for all to see.
Bucket drip irrigation kits should be used during the dry season or in areas of
low
rainfall. The kit [US$15 + Postage & Handling] irrigates 200 feet of vegetables
by
filling a five gallon bucket each morning and each evening. Two kits will
produce
all the vegetables needed for a family of seven on a vegetarian diet [Kenya].
Bucket drip kits can be adapted to use with trees. [video: Third World
Irrigation
Update, free with first kit or US$5 ppd.]
Seed:: Use open pollinated, organically grown if possible. Save your seed.
Exchange with others. http://homepage.tinet.ie/~merlyn/seedsaving.html
RBA can be used to produce flowers, dyes, vegetables, nuts, fruits, trees,
grains,
fibers, herbs, spices, medicinals, oils, teas, sweeteners, fragrances, crafts,
seeds, ornamentals, bamboo, industrials [lubricants, brooms, gums, waxes, oils,
rubber, emulsifiers, paper], forages, feed grains, animal medicinals,
livestock.
http://www.echonet.org
Use one or more of the methods outlined as they apply to your situation.
1. Home Garden/Mini-Ranch: Every home should have a garden to produce food
for the family. This assures that the family, especially the children, do not
consume chemicals. With little land, double dig for highest production.
Additional
beds can be used for forages for micro-livestock and/or small farm animals
and/or regular livestock. Use moveable pens or use cut and carry.
[Grow Food & Feed, by E. Omondi, US$10 ppd.]
2. Market Garden: High value, labor intensive crops. Double dig for
highest yields.
3. Mini-Farm: Additional crops requiring more land but less intensive
labor. Some
are particularly adapted to value-added.
4. Mini-Ranch/Mini-Dairy: Use raised beds for forage/grain. Small animals
are in
pens which are over the beds and moved down the bed daily for grazing or use
cut and carry. Micro-livestock [hampsters in the kitchen, etc.] to small
livestock to
cattle are grown.
Crops:
I am constantly searching for new crops and new marketing ideas for
mini-farmers. The following at successful in one or more countries and many can
be a cottage industry. I am seeking sources for seed. The following all vary in
regard to climate, soil, etc.
New Food Crops:
1. Stevia. In great demand by diabetics and weightwatchers. It is a small
bush
whose leaves are 25 times sweeter than cane or beet sugar. Non-caloric.
Cottage industry.
2. Crotalaria [sunhemp]
3. Sweet Sorghum cane and syrup [USA]
4. Naturally colored cotton [Peru].
5. Tomatillo [Mexico]
6. Rice: African, Floating
7. Bambara groundnut
8. Beans: Winged, Velvet, lablab, tropical lima
9. Grains: quinoa, ammarath, buckwheat, Teff, Spelt, Emmer, Ethiopian
barley;
Finger millet, Pearl millet: popping [India]
10. Sorghum: popping, vegetable, red dye [India]
11. Maize: sweet, parching; Kamut; Perennial wheat;. Fonio/Acha [world's
best
tasting cereal!]
Industrial Crops:
1. Broomcorn, brooms [USA]
2. Purple maize shucks for crafts,etc
3. Industrial hemp
Livestock:
Raise animals that use forages and non-human food. Use the old native breeds
of livestock who do well on forages. Use three-way cross.
1. Muscovy ducks- No housing needed; little food; eats flies out of air;
2. Quail - Major source of meat in some areas.
3. Water buffalo - milk producer, cheese.
4. Rabbits, Angora - hair for weaving
5. Miniature livestock - 15 breeds available. Several countries have
native
miniatures.
Value-added:
1. Grains, stone ground
2. Oil seed, cold pressed
Marketing:
There is a worldwide, grassroots movement to buy local, buy fresh and buy
organic.
1. Farm stand or curbside stand: Customers coming to you is low cost
marketing.
People will drive to a farm to buy fresh food.
2. Farmer's Markets: They are in every country from one day per week to
several
days per week. Three days per week is best. They are the fastest growing means
of marketing today
3. CSA-Community Supported Agriculture: Customers pre-purchase shares of
produce.
4. Cooperatives: Enables the mini-agriculturists to work together to do
what they
can't do individually in marketing and/or value-added processing.
[example-cheese making, jelly, etc]
5. Cottage industries/value-added: Use family labor to process in some way
what
is grown to increase the selling price. Examples: solar dried fruit/vegetables,
jams/jellies, crafts, milk/cheese, dried flowers, etc. [equipment
manufacturers:
Cecoco, Japan]. I visted the farm of a woman in Honduras who grows, harvest,
hulls, roast and bags her own coffee. She markets it only in her own community.
RBA has the potential to provide many benefits to cities - in nutritional
improvement, hunger reduction, income generation, enterprise development and
environmental enhancement. The poor and unemployed can grow their own food.
Farming converts degraded and unkept vacant lots into healthy, green areas.
Waste [grass, leaves, trees, sawdust, manure, food waste] can be composted
and used on the farms. City governments must recognize the potential of urban
agriculture and accord it the status given to other industries and economic
activities in the city. Urban Ag Network: URBANAG@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Read:
Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities; A Patch of Eden, H P
Hynes, 1996. Cultivating Havana: Urban Agriculture. 1999, Food First. 25% to
75%
of all the food consumed within the large cities is produced within those
cities.
Much of the land farmed by small, family farmers is usually the worst
available: in
the tropics the land may slope up to 75°, has been mined of its nutrients and
the
farmer has no choice. RBA is the answer: no or little outside inputs are needed
and only family labor. In Honduras, land with a 73° slope, using raised beds,
had
no eroison during hurricane Mitch.
"A difference is noticeable in even one year [using raised beds]. Terracing,
rock
walls, grass/tree borders, etc are not necessary. The beds plus green
manure/cover crops/mulching controls erosion. When widely adopted, it
generates sufficient income to stop immigration to the cities, raises land
values
and community health improves." [COSECHA].
People must understand that being a farmer, a granjero, fazendeiro o campesino,
a fermier is honorable.
--
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