For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture

To continue my new series of Happy Agriculture that is dedicated to solving 3 problems in 1 – Farmer Poverty, Bad Health, and Climate Change – today I have a complete picture that I will call “Triple A Agriculture:”

A¹, Organic Agriculture
A², Regenerative Organic Agriculture
A³, Weeds-Enriched Agriculture Layup

A¹, Organic Agriculture (OA)

For health reasons, OA is the most popular process of growing crops with/without livestock. You can prepare your soil enricher such as the fermented plant juice (FPJ). You can also produce organic fertilizer such as vermicast, using earthworms. You can also use indigenous microorganisms (IMO) in coming up with your organic fertilizer. FPJ, vermicast & IMO, you can all make them yourself.

A², Regenerative Organic Agriculture (ROA)

Sustainable Development is no longer enough for me – it supports agriculture that produces greenhouse gases (GHGs). ROA produces healthy foods and zero unhealthy GHGs!

According to the Climate Reality Project (CRP), according to Rodale Institute, ROA is one that “improves the resources it uses, rather than (destroys) or (depletes) them” (02 July 2019, “What Is Regenerative Agriculture?” Climaterealityproject.org). Destruction & depletion of resources happen under chemical or conventional agriculture. It was Robert Rodale, son of American organic agriculture pioneer JI Rodale, who came up with the term & concept of “regenerative organic agriculture,” which goes “beyond simply ‘sustainable.’” I agree.
(regenerative farm soil image from Green Living, Greenlivingpdx.com)

Also from the CRP:

With the use of cover crops, compost, crop rotation and reduced tillage, we can actually sequester more carbon than is currently emitted, tipping the needle past 100% to reverse climate change.

A³, Weeds-Enriched Agriculture Layup (WEAL)  

The name is my invention; the origin of WEAL is trash farming as described by Edward H Faulkner, American gentleman innovative farmer whose 2 books, Plowman’s Folly and Soil Development opened my inquisitive mind to more intelligent and nature-based agriculture in the mid-1960s.

WEAL is soil-based, weeds-supported, naturally organic agriculture. To Mr Faulkner’s trash farming, I injected shallow rotavation as the very first step:

You pass the rotavator over the field with the blades cutting down shallowly, 2-3 inches only, so that soil and weeds and/or crop refuse are chopped to pieces and mixed together in 1 rotary motion. That way, you are laying an organic mulch all over the field even as you are cultivating it! instantly & without hassle, and cheaply: a 2-in-1 cultivation technique. This is truly natural organic fertilizer; there is no need to cultivate worms (vermiculture) or indigenous microorganisms (IMO).

Actually, each of Triple A is regenerative, but only WEAL helps the entire field restore the wealth of the soil naturally, not the least rejuvenate the organisms that continue to generate natural fertility.

I say Triple A Agriculture solves Farmer Poverty, Bad Health, and Climate Change. With organic methods, the cost of preparing the soil is minimal; the food grown is naturally healthy; and there is zero production of greenhouse gases.

For regenerative agriculture, I recommend WEAL. Rotavating, our farmers will enrich the soil first and thereon, simultaneously enrich themselves and our society naturally!@517