When nature teaches how to farm. And conserve diversity

While we often criticise the harmful monoculture practice in the forest lands designed to produce timber, we ignore another kind of monoculture that sustains humanity by providing food. Agriculture is essentially a monoculture where a specific crop is grown on a piece of land – big or small.

On top of that, to maximise production, we have to use plenty of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, hormones and other substances, essentially altering the natural fabric of the land.

In stark contrast, a natural forest sustains numerous species of life, both flora and fauna, without any human input whatsoever.

In the name of the Green Revolution, Bangladesh also entered the chemical agriculture regime in the 1980s. Japanese writer and agriculture practitioner Shimpei Murakami spent three years in Bangladesh at that time, working with Qazi Faruque Ahmed, the founder and chairman of Proshika. Earlier, he encountered tropical agriculture in Bihar, India, for the first time.

The Internet today has plenty of videos and documentaries of people in the West and other parts of the world practising permaculture and 'do nothing' agriculture, initially made popular by another Japanese farmer and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka. But when a Bangladeshi tries to follow it, s/he comes across an obvious problem – the cover crops or green manures prescribed are all foreign species and not suitable for tropical areas. Murakami's book comes in handy in this regard.

At a young age, Murakami worked at his father's farm, where he (the latter) had been practising organic farming without using agrochemicals. Combining that experience with his observations in India and Bangladesh, Shimpei Murakami wrote the book titled 'Lessons from Nature: A Guide to Ecological Agriculture in the Tropics.'

First published in 1991, the book is still relevant today and has been reprinted numerous times. The author, who is now the Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) chairperson, has shared a PDF copy for the public to promote ecological agriculture, which he says is suitable for nature and optimises food production.

The eight-chapter book is arranged in two parts. Starting with explanations of how the ecosystems of natural forests work, the first part describes the functions of the soil and how chemical agriculture harms it.

The second part of the book illustrates practical methods to do agriculture based on natural principles of diversity, recycling and conservation.

The Internet today has plenty of videos and documentaries of people in the West and other parts of the world practising permaculture and 'do nothing' agriculture, initially made popular by another Japanese farmer and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka. 

But when a Bangladeshi tries to follow it, they come across an obvious problem – the cover crops or green manures prescribed are all foreign species, and not suitable for tropical areas.

Murakami's book comes in handy in this regard. In the book, he presents practical examples of local plant species which were actually grown in Proshika's ecological farms in Bangladesh during his stay. There is an extensive list of crops in the book that can be grown together in 'diverse cropping' and 'mixed cropping' practices.

Speaking of diverse cropping, it mimics the 'production' system in the forests where diverse plant species grow together, preventing the 'pests' from harming or destroying a specific species grown together.

Murakami, of course, reminds us that pests are nothing but insects that are an essential part of the food chain, although considered harmful when seen from the perspective of man's benefit.

"In ecology, all living things are placed in one of three categories: producers (plants), consumers (animals) or decomposers (various micro-organisms such as fungi, bacteria, viruses etc). The main point of understanding the ecosystem is learning the interaction between producers, consumers, decomposers and other non-living things (sun, water, air, minerals, etc)," Murakami wrote.

"Through the nutrient cycle, all living things increase and the soil becomes fertile. Every living and non-living thing interacts in nature- there is nothing useless or unnecessary," he added.

According to Murakami, monoculture in agricultural land is the main cause of the unbalanced agroecosystem. He points out that there is almost no pest problem in the natural forest, and it never occurs that one insect or one disease destroys the whole natural forest, as is the case in modern agriculture.

Masanobu Fukuoka, author of 'The One-Straw Revolution,' is Murakami's agricultural master, he mentioned. Fukuoka said that nature is perfect. The soil in the natural forest is never ploughed and fertilised by farmers, but it is soft and rich in nutrients. 

The soil in agricultural land, on the other hand, is ploughed and fertilised by farmers for every crop, but it is hard with fewer nutrients. Why? "It is because man does not understand nature."

"Let nature follow her own way" – based on this idea, Fukuoka developed a natural farming method which is known as "do nothing farming". No ploughing, no fertiliser, no weeding and no pesticide. As a result, Murakami said, Fukuoka was getting higher rice production than the Japanese Average.

Agriculture cannot be reduced to using the right proportion of chemical fertilisers and the right dose of chemical pesticides. Proper practice is much more complicated and diversified, Murakami wrote.

Even in the early 1990s, Murakami observed that the farmlands in Bangladesh were experiencing an increasing fertiliser need. He also wrote about groundwater depletion due to excessive use in agriculture. While this review was being written on World Water Day, several reports surfaced portraying a worrying scene where agriculture was being hampered in many parts of the country due to the same.

Murakami's book, which is a perfect handbook on how to practice agriculture without harming nature to a great extent, provides guidance on how to grow crops with minimal use of water. In this regard, he described several methods such as mulching, cover cropping etc, which help conserve moisture in the soil while adding nutrients to it.

Citing studies done in Japan, Murakami pointed out that chemically grown products have less nutrient content (protein, vitamins, minerals) and higher water content compared with organically grown products. The high water content may be one of the main reasons for the lack of taste and low shelf life of chemically grown products.

The lack of taste is a serious issue in today's Bangladesh too, and a recent TBS story on farmers' markets found that consumers find food grown with organic fertilisers tastier.

"In the natural forest, there is a nutrient cycle based on the soil. Everything comes from the soil and is returned to the soil. Because of this cycle, there is nothing unnecessary in nature. Everything needs and everything supports in turn. This cycle is a key point for proper use of resources but in agricultural practice, the cycle is always disturbed and problems are created," Murakami explains. 

His book also provides solutions to these problems. Qazi Faruque Ahmed, founder of Proshika, acknowledged this in the foreword of the book.

"Unlike many books on the environment, this book does not stop at describing the problems only. Murakami describes in detail the alternatives and gives rational hints for practice," Qazi Faruque Ahmed wrote.

"After reading this book, one is left with a feeling of optimism that viable alternatives to the monumental damage to the environment exist. He proves, not theoretically but practically, that ecological agriculture is not only environmentally friendly but also more productive and sustainable than chemical agriculture. 

Anyone reading this book will be convinced that ecological agriculture is based on the superior science of nature and, therefore, it is the way for the future," he further wrote.