The Basics of Natural Farming

Here is something interesting for all of you guys, a Tsunami of information to cure or at least to reduce some of our ignorance is often necessary; we don’t need millions of dollars in equipment to run a farm nor thousands of dollars to build our own Eden on earth.

Natural Farming recognizes that farmers and gardeners must first attend to nature so that they may then learn how to tend. This gentle practice turns farming from the science it has become in the West into a craft; where this craft is a focused understanding of the primacy of nature.

Temperate Natural Farming proceeds from simplification applying the ‘do-nothing’ approach from deep observation through opening ourselves to nature, which is the work of a lifetime. Curiously, as we progress along the path of Natural Farming there comes the realization this is not agriculture at all because it wants to go nowhere and seek no victory and, ultimately, it is not about the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

Natural Farming is truly inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s practices, in 1975 he wrote a book called The One-Straw Revolution that described his journey, his philosophy, and farming techniques. The One-Straw Revolution, in short, was Fukuoka’s plea for man to reexamine his relationship with nature in its entirety. In his most utopian vision, all people would be farmers. If each family in Japan were allotted 1.25 acres of arable land and practiced natural farming, not only could each farmer support his family, he wrote, but each "would also have plenty of time for leisure and social activities within the village community. I think," he added, "this is the most direct path toward making this country a happy, pleasant land."

I would highly recommend buying and reading it again and again because it tells so many facts and common sense of agricultural practices. In other words, it idiot proof that learning the basics of Natural Farming makes it really easy.


There are five principles to Natural Farming;

No plowing – because it destroys the cycles of life in the soil,
No fertilizers – because they deplete the land from which they are taken and disrupt the balance of the soils on which they are used,
No pesticides – because there are no ‘pests’,
No wedding – because there are no ‘weeds’,
No pruning – because a tree left undisturbed knows far better how to grow.


Natural farming is founded on the laws of nature. It assumes that all that is needed to successfully produce crops can be found in the natural environment. Engaging in natural farming, therefore, is a desirable venture. I don't have the opportunity to make use of these practices in Singapore, but I have to be patient. Good things come to those who wait!