Konkuk University, Seoul · October 5–7, 2016

Natural Science Farming Symposium 2016

A day of talks in Seoul, then two days on the farms. 23 talks, three languages. Master Cho's students from ten countries showed what natural farming did on their fields, from Afghan potatoes to Hawaiian macadamias. Every talk is translated, checked line by line, and boiled down to what was tested and what happened.

Read what it all adds up to →

Also on the record: Hilo 2015

Topics microbes soil economics pigs poultry rice history corn food scale disease feed health minerals protectors reproduction Clear

3 talks on “potato”

Baryalai Malekzada ·Afghanistan ·17 min

Reproduction (WCA) on the Soil Lifted Potato Yield 63%

A potato trial at Paju, March to July 2016, grown with natural farming solutions throughout, tested ten ways of giving Reproduction (water-soluble calcium, WCA): on the soil, on the leaves, or both, at three strengths. The strongest soil dose gave the top yield, 40.7 t/ha against 25.03 for no calcium, and the heaviest tubers. Calcium on the leaves alone did little for yield; soil and leaf together built the most foliage.

Found Strongest soil dose (T4) gave the top yield: 40.7 t/ha vs 25.03 with no calcium

microbes phosphorus potato reproduction soil yield

Morning presenters, with questions from the floor ·22 min

Q&A: From 50-Ton IMO Piles to Strong Calcium on Potatoes

A short Q&A after the ten morning talks. Chris Trump explained how he moved from 50-ton piles of Microbes (IMO) to small IMO3 batches brewed into liquid IMO; a Hawaiʻi taro grower described IMO4 in flooded fields; the Konkuk students explained their trial designs, how liquid IMO was made for the peanut trial, where the tomato trial's phosphorus came from, and why the potato trial used water-soluble calcium six to nine times stronger than the usual 1:1000. Several questions went unanswered for lack of time or because the presenter had left.

Found Chris Trump has made about 70–75 tons of IMO over three years, not every year

microbes potato reproduction scale soil taro

Chang-pyo Lee ·South Korea ·26 min

Neorganic Rice: Same Yield, Higher Price, Up to 3x Profit

Chang-pyo Lee of World Vision Korea reports on 'Neorganic' farming (natural farming plus no-till, mulch and compost) in World Vision projects in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia. In Vietnam, rice yielded the same as conventional at lower input cost, and a higher selling price gave two to three times the net profit; chicken and herbs also earned more, while lettuce, broccoli and pigs fed no protein earned less. Ethiopian seed potatoes yielded more at all three cooperatives, and Sri Lankan families gained food access and diet diversity, though their yields were not significantly different from non-participants.

Found Vietnam rice: same yield, 11,000 vs 6,500 VND/kg, 2.3–3.3 times the net profit

economics microbes pigs potato poultry rice