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

8 talks on “rice”

Juju C. S. Wang ·Taiwan ·14 min

Lotus Trusts and Sparrow Rice: Natural Farming as a Movement

Juju Wang, a professor at National Tsing Hua University, argued that natural farming in Taiwan should be run as a social movement and spread through 'social design': projects that make taking part easy and fun. He showed examples, including a two-acre lotus farm kept by 287 trustees who pay about US$100 a year, rice brands built around sparrows and the endangered leopard cat, school gardens, two university farmers' markets, and vegetable bouquets at graduation. He gave no figures on how much these projects changed farm incomes or land use.

Found Lotus farm trust: 287 trustees pay NT$3,000 (about US$100) a year

economics education markets rice social movement wildlife

Teruhiko Sawamura ·Japan ·23 min Spoken in Japanese

Kumamoto Grower: Wild-Grass Compost Cut Tomato Wilt

Teruhiko Sawamura grows organic greenhouse tomatoes in Shiranui, Kumamoto, using natural farming he learned from Master Cho. He builds soil with riverbank reeds and grasses aged three years into low-nitrogen compost, plus home-made bokashi made on a clay floor, and sprays a home-made plant extract with brown rice vinegar and seawater. He reports much less bacterial wilt, organic tomatoes shipped in the scarce autumn season from ten years of his own saved seed, and support from the Kumamoto governor after the 2016 earthquake. It is a farm report with photos; no trial data were shown.

Found Bacterial wilt of tomato dropped a great deal

cleanser disease economics food minerals rice

Julius B. Sugue ·Philippines ·15 min

Rice Root Volume Nearly Tripled with Fuel (FAA) at 1:500

A one-season paddy rice trial at Paju gave Fuel (FAA) at three strengths, 1:2000, 1:1000 and 1:500, on top of a full natural farming spray program, against a no-FAA control. The 1:500 plots had the most tillers, the longest roots, nearly three times the control's root volume and the most panicles per hill (23.6 vs 18.4). Filled grains per panicle and 1,000-grain weight did not differ, and no grain yield per area was reported.

Found Root volume at flowering 180 cc with FAA 1:500 vs 65 cc in the control

food fuel medicine microbes reproduction rice

Lemnsah Andrew Banboye ·Cameroon ·10 min

Water Pepper Rivaled a Chemical Spray on Rice Grasshoppers

Two one-season rice trials tested boiled plant extracts as insect sprays. On Konkuk's natural farming paddy in Paju, water pepper, tobacco leaf and neem sprays cut pest counts to a fraction of the unsprayed plots while dragonflies stayed; in the lab, water pepper and tobacco killed every grasshopper within two days. On a conventional farm in Yeoju, water pepper extract held grasshoppers and stink bugs about as low as the chemical cypermethrin, but not stem borers.

Found Lab: water pepper and tobacco killed all grasshoppers within 2 days

beneficial insects insecticide neem pests protectors rice

Son Sung-kyu ·South Korea ·10 min

Mindanao Rice Farmers Took Up Cho's Method, Now Export Rice

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.

Found Farmers already used to chemical farming were hard to convert, even after almost 60 conferences

economics history pigs poultry rice soil

Cho Kyung-hoon ·South Korea ·17 min Spoken in Korean

One Korean County Took Natural Farming Rice From 23 to 200 ha

A county extension officer from Gokseong tells how his office moved from organic farming that failed to natural farming under Master Cho, starting in 2009. Natural farming rice in the county grew from 23 ha in 2009 to 200 ha in 2015–2016, with 250 ha expected next. The rest is a photo tour of crops and livestock with field stories, spoken figures and few controlled comparisons.

Found Natural farming rice grew from 23 ha in 2009 to 200 ha in 2015 and 2016

economics health horticulture pigs poultry rice

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

Se-Chul Chun ·South Korea ·25 min

Feeding the Good Bacteria Cut Pepper Root Rot to 6%

A Konkuk plant pathologist, new to natural farming, reviews biological control of soil-borne disease and shows his own work: bacteria coated on rice seed against seedling rot, and bacteria against Phytophthora root rot of pepper, both working better when given a sugar the bacteria can use and the pathogen cannot. He then gives first, unreplicated microbe counts from the Paju natural farming soils and from each IMO step: counts fell about tenfold from IMO1 to IMO4 and the fungi shifted from Aspergillus to Rhizopus. He draws no conclusion about natural farming yet.

Found Pepper root rot: 81% with the pathogen alone, 22% with bacterium KJIR5, 6% with KJIR5 plus arabinose

biological control disease microbes pepper research rice