Mindanao Rice Farmers Took Up Cho's Method, Now Export Rice
Son Sung-kyu, Rev.; Korean Presbyterian pastor and missionary in the Philippines, 1991–2013 (title slide: 'SON, SUNG KU (Phillipines)') · South Korea
A Korean pastor who served in the Philippines from 1991 to 2013 contrasts chemical and natural farming on two slides of paired words, then shows a pig pen and a duck-and-chicken coop. He says farmers used to chemicals are the hardest to change, even after some 60 conferences. He ends with a Mindanao NGO report: he brought Master Cho in for a three-day seminar, the group spent a year testing natural farming on rice, and he says the farmers now export brown rice.
What they found
Main claim: chemical and natural farming differ in mindset as much as method (individual vs communal, analytical vs synthetic, profit-first vs profit as a byproduct), and natural farming restores the soil and the environment that chemical farming degrades.
Talk, not a trial. Two word-pair slides (Comparison; Problems & Solutions), two photos (Fig. 2 'Odorless Swine', Fig. 3 'Chicken & Duck Coop'), then pages from a 2006 conference paper by a Mindanao NGO (proceedings pp. 444–445; author name only partly legible, and a footnote says the author could not attend, so co-worker Rev. Sung Kyu Son presented). The NGO's program: 'advocates for life-giving agriculture', started 1992 with a NOVIB (Netherlands) grant, for rice farmers in Davao del Sur, North Cotabato and Davao City. In 2000 they met Pastor Son, who introduced Korean Nature Farming and later arranged for Cho Han-kyu to come. No yields, costs, farmer numbers or rice areas were given.
- Korean Natural Farming for rice — Taught at a three-day seminar by Master Cho, then tested on rice for about a year. Which solutions, rates or schedules were used: not stated.
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Farmers already used to chemical farming were hard to convert, even after almost 60 conferences
Conferences ran five or six days; the speaker says many still did not change.
▶ 1:53 As spoken
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Five contrasts between chemical and natural farming
Comparison slide: Individualistic vs Communal; Systematical vs Intuitional; Analytical vs Synthetic; Time conscious vs Space conscious; Profit oriented vs Profit as by[product].
▶ 2:06 Said and shown on the slides
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Four problems and their natural farming answers
Problems & Solutions slide: Soil deterioration vs Soil restoration; Environmental destruction vs Environmental restoration; Toxification vs Detoxification; GMO vs Non-GMO.
▶ 5:12 Said and shown on the slides
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A natural farming pig pen with about 100 pigs in a Muslim-majority area of Mindanao
Slide 'Fig. 2. Odorless Swine' shows pigs on deep dry bedding. The odor claim is in the caption only; not measured.
▶ 4:34 Said and shown on the slides
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Master Cho gave a three-day seminar attended by government and civil society people; the rice method took a year to test
Slide and speech: test the technology, document findings, write training modules; ready by the first quarter of 2002.
▶ 8:47 Said and shown on the slides
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The farmers now sell their own brown rice abroad
Spoken: exported to America, the United Kingdom and other countries. Volumes, buyers and prices not given.
▶ 9:11 As spoken
- No data: no yields, costs, incomes or farmer numbers; the comparison is stated, not measured.
- Much of the second half reads from another author's 2006 conference paper; that author's name is only partly legible on the slide.
- The export claim is spoken only, with no detail.
- Several stretches of speech are unclear in all three machine transcripts (a name and place at about 4:05, the program aims at about 8:25, the kind of brown rice at the end).
- Expect farmers who already know chemical farming to change slowly; years of meetings may not do it alone.
- In this account, the path from a seminar to a usable method ran through a year of local testing, written findings and training modules.
- Natural farming livestock pens kept on deep bedding were shown as odorless, alongside free-ranging ducks and chickens.
Next to Master Cho's teaching
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Agrees
Cho taught in Mindanao Cho's own book shows him lecturing at the Mindanao Training Resource Center at a 'Korean Natural Farming Seminar for pro-environmental and sustainable agriculture' and demonstrating pig feed from local materials.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 32–38
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Differs
When Cho's Mindanao work began Cho's timeline lists a Natural Farming demonstration farm in Mindanao in 1999; the talk's slide says the NGO met Pastor Son in 2000 and only later invited Cho. Both may be true for different groups; the dates were not reconciled.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 3
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Agrees
Chemical farming degrades soil; natural farming restores it Cho writes that pesticides and chemical fertilizers aggravate the soil, destroy microbe habitat and cut diversity, and that IMO restores the balance.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 159
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Agrees
Odorless livestock Cho calls natural farming livestock 'zero-emission': no wastewater, no wasted feces, all waste recycled.
Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 54–55
“Chemical farming is basically very individualistic. And also natural farming is, we call it, communal.”
▶ 2:06
“But profit, in natural farming, is enjoyed as a byproduct of enjoying farming.”
▶ 3:47
“Nature farming was the right technology to use in rice production.”
▶ 8:58
In this talk
Transcript
Transcribed and checked by hand against the recording. Click any time to play from there.
0:00 Good afternoon, everybody. I just share my experience, especially for us in the Philippines, 1991 to 2013. First of all, I express to Master Cho and Reverend Lee too my gratitude, because right now I'm here because they are really healthy. And then in a sense I want to share with something.
1:11 This is what I am saying: first of all, I want to compare the data of chemical and natural farming. Why I am here: I want to share something, because when I was in the Philippines, I was teaching. Many people, teaching them at the time, to kind of a very difficult paradigm shift. Usually we know the technical already, the farming already experienced them, then they cannot easily change their mind, their hearts. That's sometimes I have almost 60 times the conference,
1:58 conferences, seven hours, five days, five or six days, but still they haven't changed. This is what I'm saying, this is what I'm calling individualistic. Chemical farming is basically very individualistic. And also natural farming is, we call it, communal. And also, second, systematical in chemical farming. But in natural farming, intuition, very intuitional; those of you who already experienced it will know that something. And also analytical. Chemical farming is very analytical, and also the
2:48 natural farming is synthetic. So also time conscious, meaning: when the Westerners invite you to dinner, at that time you still think about, first of all, their first menu, soup, and then after that, main dishes, and then after that, dessert. So meaning a time process. This is Western people, they are saying. But Korean or Japanese or Chinese, Oriental people, they all together, simultaneously, eat their soup or main dishes, and also dessert sometimes. This is something we call it more space conscious.
3:36 It's very different from the other way. And also, this is chemical-oriented farming, profit oriented already. But profit, in natural farming, is enjoyed as a byproduct of enjoying farming. It's different socially, but different for him. And in this case, as you know, [name unclear] showed his findings in [place unclear, heard 'Misaya'], an area in the very northern part of Mindanao; there are almost so many Muslim people there.
4:28 Sometimes it's not easy to approach that many people; it's something we have some problems with. And also they already have, like, the swine system already; they have how many pigs, maybe 100 pigs already raising up. And also, this is also the poultry. And in the poultry, they have a white duck. This is a wild duck. Wild ducks, they like this environment already. Sometimes they are just only, simultaneously, still coming into this barn. Also the last thing, what I'm saying: the chemical farming, soil deterioration. This
5:26 is some problem. So as you know, many countries also, we saw that this is soil deterioration. But natural farming, soil restoration. This is the soil restoration. And also environmental destruction, this is the chemical farming, and also environmental restoration. And also toxification: you know already, already, those many pesticides, and also you can use them in chemical farming. and also detoxification and also GMO. This is a real problem in the world right now. Many GMOs already in Korea also there are some problems in terms of GMO.
6:13 And also non-GMO; this is what natural farming provides. This case, this is already in 2006. We had one conference at the time, held by a council of churches in Asia. So this is meaning the ecumenical movement in Korea. Sometimes we have some, we call it, one of the participants, Mr. [name unclear], he will share something.
7:01 And the essence and philosophy: our social development philosophy is founded on the basic Christian doctrine of believing in God and caring for His creation. His vision and also mission. And also this is [unclear]. [unclear] NGOs, non-government organizations. They already started in 1999, and then in 2006, at the time, they have their own results: the sustainable agriculture, and the advocacy and governance program. And this natural farming system is for rice farmers in Davao del Sur, North Cotabato and Davao City.
7:53 And also the TACDRUP programs, advocacy and governance programs. This is for it. This is not. Okay, this is the sustainable agriculture program: especially, 'advocates for life-giving agriculture' was started in 1992 with the grant from NOVIB of the Netherlands, focused on the rice farmers, and [unclear] farmers adopted the technology. The program, they [unclear; the slide lists the program's aims: poverty alleviation and preventing environmental degradation] ... we met [Pastor Son], so, met me.
8:34 [He] introduced us to Korean Nature Farming technology, and later we invited the founder of the Korean Nature Farming Association, Dr. Cho Han-kyu, Master Cho. And he trained them; he conducted a three-day seminar that was well attended by both government and civil society representatives. Nature farming was the right technology to use in rice production. It took a year to test the technology, document our findings, and also write the training modules.
9:11 Despite our limited resources, we were ready by the first quarter of 2002. After that, they already have so many products. Also, they sell their own brown rice to America or the United Kingdom and also other countries. Those of them already have their own [unclear] brown rice right now. They have exported. That's the end of my presentation.