Jadam organic Farming & Gardening : The Way to Ultra-Low-Cost Agriculture, Make All-Natural Fertilizer, Pesticide and Microorganism Inputs Yourself

forced
leaching of minerals.
” Whereas natural leaching is the deprivation of the nutri-
ents from the soil mainly because the fruits take them, forced leaching refers to
the process where nutrients are deprived due to the foolish human practice of
removing crop residues. As crop roots stretch into the soil, roots select what the
plant needs and absorb them. e difference in the nutrient content of each
and every fruit is relected by the different nutrients imbibed by the roots.
Stems and leaves are made from nutrients absorbed by the roots. ese nutri-
ents are particularly selected from the “pool of nutrients” present in the soil.
is pool is under a signiicant threat. 
ere is one thing repeatedly stressed to farmers in agricultural workshops:
that they must completely eliminate crop residues to have fewer diseases and
pests the next season. It’s called ield sanitation. So well-meaning, diligent farm-
ers go about getting rid of the smallest scrap of residue. ey expect that they
would at least save some money from reduced use of pesticide next year. Let’s
stop and think: if what the experts said were true, then the amount of pesticide
used every year should have kept decreasing, so that by now once or twice a sea-
son should suffice. But that is exactly the opposite of how things are going.
Each year, farmers are more deeply entangled in the trap of pesticides. What
more evidence to prove them wrong? By promoting the elimination of crop
residues, current system of agriculture is eventually encouraging farmers to re-
move nutrients from the soil. Who is the winner? Needless to say, fertilizer and
pesticide companies. Current agricultural practice leaves the soil deprived of nu-
trients and that calls for more market-bought fertilizers and pesticides. It is a vi-
cious cycle. Diseases to plants and soil should be perceived as a “cold”. Everybody
is exposed to the cold virus but healthy people do not catch it. If plants and soil
ULC영어본문.qxp_레이아웃 1 2016. 2. 19. 오후 6:40 페이지 114

---

Soil Management
●
115
are healthy, they will not easily fall prey to the ever-present disease-bearing ele-
ments. Some argue that health runs in the family because of the DNA, but that is
not true. Even DNA can change according to the environment.
Health is neither accidental nor destined; it is the result of effort. How you
eat, drink, exercise, move your body, and operate your mind all matter. It is not
because the crop was unlucky that it fell sick. Look at what kind of environ-
ment your crop is in. Natural and forced leachings of minerals is progressing in
the soil. All sorts of chemical contaminants new to the environment are enter-
ing the soil. I daresay that farming that tells you to get rid of your crop residue
is not a farming at all. at kind of farming is a direct harm to agriculture and
nature. If you want to grow rice well, use rice straw as fertilizer instead of selling
it and buying some other fertilizer from the market. People follow and practice
a costly form of farming and yet complain that their farming is costly. Farming
that treats crop residue as waste is waste. It is an exploitation of nature. 
ere are some advocates of zero-input agriculture. ey argue that they
can farm without adding anything – no nutrients, no water, nothing. I see
farmers attracted to this kind of theory, but how can this kind of nonsense gain
any popularity? Unless you are going to farm just a few years, this theory ab-
solutely does not stand in the face of reality. Zero-input is possible only in na-
ture. at is because all the leaves and the fruits fall to the ground. ey are
broken down and nutrients are recycled. Come to look at it, nature’s process is
not even zero-input; it is a complete recycling, everything