HOW NATURAL FARMING BEGAN
Over half century of learning and promoting Natural Farming Mr Cho had 4 spiritual teachers and 3 human teachers:
The four spiritual teachers are:.
1- the Bible : it is not the words of the man but the voice of the Omniscience God. 2.- Nature : It reveals its secrets when the man stays humble.. 3.- 4H Club's ideology: Head, Heart, Hand and Health 4.- Conscience : I chose to follow my conscience, not my greed.
Mr Cho was fortunate to meet three teachers in Japan. The first teacher he met was Yamagishi Miozo. He was a farmer full of love and respect for life. To him, the spirit and the mind were more important than the technology and the management.
His second teacher was Shibada Genji. He opened my eyes to the remarkable world of enzymes and micro-organisms. I still cherish his book The True Aspect of Enzymes.
His third teacher was Oinoue Yasushi.. he read more than dozen times his book titled The Theory of New Cultivation Technology. The straightforward logic on the physiological and behavioral pattern of plants gave me wisdom to treat the plants with a new perspective, and his theory of the Nutritive Cycle has enabled me to talk with the plants.
Natural Farming (NF) was developed by Dr. Cho Han Kyu at the Janong Natural Farming Institute in South Korea. It was originally intended to change the chemical-based and harmful farming methods that were being practiced in South Korea. Together with like-minded farmers, he converted his lifelong studies and his own experiences into an innovative farming system that not only promotes respect and care for the environment, but also produces more with less cost and labour.
Dr. Cho’s created Global Natural Farming (CGNF). He is the chief resource person, founder and promoter of this network of Natural farming since 1965. His novel and amazing practices of agricultural production improving the quality of food is revolutionary and much ahead of our generation .
Unlike the main stream agriculture scientists, Dr. Cho was able to think out of the Box. Even as a final year graduate student of agriculture and veterinary technology (1965), he had the unusual courage and conviction about the irrelevance of green revolution Technologies (GRT) for the Asian region. He decided to examine and promote the best practices adopted by the farming community for three generations in South.Korea and Japan. Dr. Cho treated enlightened farmers as his real teachers. His systematic and scientific inquiry enabled him to identify the great potentials of the concept and strategy of Farming with Indigenous micro-organisms (IMO).
Dr. Cho was able to demonstrate significant superiority of his method as compared to industial farming. Farming with IMO is highly economical and practicable in terms of production and productivity of crops and livestock.
Natural Farming was founded by Dr. Cho Han Kyu in the 1960's at a time when environment was not even as an issue. Dr. Cho tried to show an alternative way of farming that assured both high yield and good quality, a nature- respecting farming that superceded the chemical intensive agriculture which had just begun to spread in South Korea at that time.
Dr. Cho, a short, stocky, ebullient, energetic and humorous octogenarian is gifted with the rare foresight who can see beyond the trend of our generation. He developed this simple technology when he found that the conventional / chemical agriculture is patently and ineptly ecologically not sustainable, economically not viable and environmentally ruinous.
Pursuit of present agricultural practices, assiduously promoted by chemical industry, scientific establishment and bureaucracy has forced hundreds of thousands of farmers to end their lives besides degrading environment and wreaking havoc to human health. Diabetes, cancer, hypertension, renal failure, multi-organ failure etc. have acquired epidemic proportions. NF not only rehabilitate the environment but also produce healthy food for the body.
Mr Cho, has visited Hawaii several times and this practice is taking root, getting attention and support from the county and state as well as from many small scale and commercial farmers. Several University of Hawaii and at Hilo Community College professors have been learning Natural Farming and practicing it, as well as going to South Korea to observe it firsthand.
Natural Farming has been embraced by the South Korean government after one county experimented and every farmer in the county practiced it for a year. These rice farmers not only had bigger yields than usual, but saved money on their inputs and sold their rice for a premium. Where Natural Farming is practised, it has the added benefit of cleaning up the waterways, rivers and even coastal waters. A co-op of 40 strawberry farmers uses Natural Farming methods exclusively in their 300′ long greenhouses producing gorgeous, scrumptious strawberries, which again sell for a premium, certified “Natural Farming”. In another wide scale experiment, an entire county is practicing a model of totally self-sufficient farming where each farm has 500 chickens, 20 pigs and five beef cattle.
The entire country of South Korea has embraced this system of farming as the centerpiece for their agricultural policy. Mr. Cho, the founder, was ignored or scoffed at for years, but, after seeing the results of several large scale experiments, he has received various honors, and is now teaching over 300 agricultural agents in Korea. One of his appointments was to the UNDP, as an expert advisor with the goal of reducing the number of poor people worldwide by half. The philosophy behind Natural Farming is to return to the farmers their natural sovereignty and relationship with nature.
One of Mr. Cho’s mentors was a farmer “full of love and respect for life.” My favorite quote from Mr. Cho is, “A farmer should have parental love towards his crop and livestock. This is a heart of a true farmer…” At the same time, farmers should be able to make a living from their work. Farmers in Korea are making six figure incomes, raising chickens for egg production, raising apples, growing strawberries and more.
Over half century of learning and promoting Natural Farming Mr Cho had 4 spiritual teachers and 3 human teachers:
The four spiritual teachers are:.
1- the Bible : it is not the words of the man but the voice of the Omniscience God. 2.- Nature : It reveals its secrets when the man stays humble.. 3.- 4H Club's ideology: Head, Heart, Hand and Health 4.- Conscience : I chose to follow my conscience, not my greed.
Mr Cho was fortunate to meet three teachers in Japan. The first teacher he met was Yamagishi Miozo. He was a farmer full of love and respect for life. To him, the spirit and the mind were more important than the technology and the management.
His second teacher was Shibada Genji. He opened my eyes to the remarkable world of enzymes and micro-organisms. I still cherish his book The True Aspect of Enzymes.
His third teacher was Oinoue Yasushi.. he read more than dozen times his book titled The Theory of New Cultivation Technology. The straightforward logic on the physiological and behavioral pattern of plants gave me wisdom to treat the plants with a new perspective, and his theory of the Nutritive Cycle has enabled me to talk with the plants.
Natural Farming (NF) was developed by Dr. Cho Han Kyu at the Janong Natural Farming Institute in South Korea. It was originally intended to change the chemical-based and harmful farming methods that were being practiced in South Korea. Together with like-minded farmers, he converted his lifelong studies and his own experiences into an innovative farming system that not only promotes respect and care for the environment, but also produces more with less cost and labour.
Dr. Cho’s created Global Natural Farming (CGNF). He is the chief resource person, founder and promoter of this network of Natural farming since 1965. His novel and amazing practices of agricultural production improving the quality of food is revolutionary and much ahead of our generation .
Unlike the main stream agriculture scientists, Dr. Cho was able to think out of the Box. Even as a final year graduate student of agriculture and veterinary technology (1965), he had the unusual courage and conviction about the irrelevance of green revolution Technologies (GRT) for the Asian region. He decided to examine and promote the best practices adopted by the farming community for three generations in South.Korea and Japan. Dr. Cho treated enlightened farmers as his real teachers. His systematic and scientific inquiry enabled him to identify the great potentials of the concept and strategy of Farming with Indigenous micro-organisms (IMO).
Dr. Cho was able to demonstrate significant superiority of his method as compared to industial farming. Farming with IMO is highly economical and practicable in terms of production and productivity of crops and livestock.
Natural Farming was founded by Dr. Cho Han Kyu in the 1960's at a time when environment was not even as an issue. Dr. Cho tried to show an alternative way of farming that assured both high yield and good quality, a nature- respecting farming that superceded the chemical intensive agriculture which had just begun to spread in South Korea at that time.
Dr. Cho, a short, stocky, ebullient, energetic and humorous octogenarian is gifted with the rare foresight who can see beyond the trend of our generation. He developed this simple technology when he found that the conventional / chemical agriculture is patently and ineptly ecologically not sustainable, economically not viable and environmentally ruinous.
Pursuit of present agricultural practices, assiduously promoted by chemical industry, scientific establishment and bureaucracy has forced hundreds of thousands of farmers to end their lives besides degrading environment and wreaking havoc to human health. Diabetes, cancer, hypertension, renal failure, multi-organ failure etc. have acquired epidemic proportions. NF not only rehabilitate the environment but also produce healthy food for the body.
Mr Cho, has visited Hawaii several times and this practice is taking root, getting attention and support from the county and state as well as from many small scale and commercial farmers. Several University of Hawaii and at Hilo Community College professors have been learning Natural Farming and practicing it, as well as going to South Korea to observe it firsthand.
Natural Farming has been embraced by the South Korean government after one county experimented and every farmer in the county practiced it for a year. These rice farmers not only had bigger yields than usual, but saved money on their inputs and sold their rice for a premium. Where Natural Farming is practised, it has the added benefit of cleaning up the waterways, rivers and even coastal waters. A co-op of 40 strawberry farmers uses Natural Farming methods exclusively in their 300′ long greenhouses producing gorgeous, scrumptious strawberries, which again sell for a premium, certified “Natural Farming”. In another wide scale experiment, an entire county is practicing a model of totally self-sufficient farming where each farm has 500 chickens, 20 pigs and five beef cattle.
The entire country of South Korea has embraced this system of farming as the centerpiece for their agricultural policy. Mr. Cho, the founder, was ignored or scoffed at for years, but, after seeing the results of several large scale experiments, he has received various honors, and is now teaching over 300 agricultural agents in Korea. One of his appointments was to the UNDP, as an expert advisor with the goal of reducing the number of poor people worldwide by half. The philosophy behind Natural Farming is to return to the farmers their natural sovereignty and relationship with nature.
One of Mr. Cho’s mentors was a farmer “full of love and respect for life.” My favorite quote from Mr. Cho is, “A farmer should have parental love towards his crop and livestock. This is a heart of a true farmer…” At the same time, farmers should be able to make a living from their work. Farmers in Korea are making six figure incomes, raising chickens for egg production, raising apples, growing strawberries and more.