Kamis, 22 November 2012

Apa Itu Natural Farming?


Oleh : ICHSAN KURNIAWAN
Akhir-akhir ini istlah Natural Farming mulai mengaung. Sebenarnya apa sih Natural Farming itu? Natural Farming kalau sepintas lalu bisa kita sebut (jika di Indonesiakan langsung) Pertanian Alami. Lalu? Ya, pertanian alami, jika kita kaji lagi secara pikiran awam akan bermakna pertanian yang berbasis alam. Bersinergi dengan alam dan atau tentu bersumber dari alam.
Bersinergi dengan alam sendiri bermakna atau diistilah keren kan “berwawasan lingkungan” secara penuh. Tak merusak alam. Tak mengganggu ekosistem.
Sebenarnya Natural Farming ini sudah cukup lama menjadi bahasan menimbang ragam fenomena dan isu lingkungan mulai dari degradasi dan kerusakan lahan akibat pupuk berbahan sintetis sampai pada isu kapitalisme yang notabene hingga saat ini mengakibatkan petani bergantung pada industri-industri dalam berusaha tani. Lihat saja bagaimana isu kelangkaan pupuk menjadi masalah besar karena petani telah ketergantungan terhadap sarana produksi dari luar. Buaian instan dan cepat yang mengakibatkan hal demikian terjdi sehingga ketika pupuk langka, sulit untuk dicari, kemudian tiba-tiba muncul dengan harga melambung dan petani harus (mau tak mau) untuk membeli. Dan pada akhirnya petani sendiri dengan alasan cepat, mudah dan instant lebih memilih untuk bergantung kepada keberadaan pupuk berbahan sistetis tersebut (dari industri pupuk). Nah, lebih dari sekedar permasalahan isu lingkungaan, maka Natural Farming dicetus untuk mengembalikan kedaulatan petani secara utuh agar tidak tergantung dengan industrialisasi sarana produksi usaha tani.
Natural Farming sendiri sebenarnya telah dilakukan sejak beberapa tahun lalu. Dr. Cho serorang tokoh berkebangsaan Korea mungkin cukup populer ketika kita bertanya tentang tokoh yang akrab dengan dunia Natural Pertanian ini. Namun sebenarnya bagaimana pencetusan awal Natural Farming. Berikut saya kutip tentang sejarah Natural Farming yang katanya digagas oleh Masanobu Fukuoka, seorang petani Jepang yang dengan menggagas “The Fukuoka Method”
Menurut Wikipedia
Berikut adalah kutipan yang saya ambil dari Wikipedia tentang Natural Farming meliputi sejarah dan prinsip.
NATURAL FARMING
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Natural farming is an ecological farming approach established by Masanobu Fukuoka (1913–2008), a Japanese farmer and philosopher who described his agricultural philosophy as shizen nōhō (自然農法?) in Japanese.[1] It is also referred to as "the Fukuoka Method", "the natural way of farming" or "do-nothing farming". The title refers not to lack of labor, but to the avoidance of manufactured inputs and equipment. Natural farming can also be described as ecological farming and is related to fertility farming, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, ecoagriculture and permaculture but should be distinguished from biodynamic agriculture.
The system exploits the complexity of living organisms that shape each particular ecosystem. Fukuoka saw farming not just as a means of producing food but as an aesthetic or spiritual approach to life,[2] the ultimate goal of which was, "the cultivation and perfection of human beings".[3] He suggested that farmers could benefit from closely observing local conditions.[4] Natural farming is a closed system, one that demands no inputs and mimics nature.[5]
Fukuoka's ideas challenged conventions that are core to modern agro-industries, instead promoting an environmental approach.[6] Natural farming also differs from conventional organic farming[7], which Fukuoka considered to be another modern technique that disturbs nature.[8]
Fukuoka claimed that his approach prevents water pollution, biodiversity loss and soil erosion while still providing ample amounts of food.[9]
Fukuoka distilled natural farming into five principles:[10]
1.    No tillage
2.    No fertilizer
3.    No pesticides (or herbicides)
4.    No weeding
5.    No pruning
Though many of his plant varieties and practices relate specifically to Japan, and even to local conditions in subtropical western Shikoku, his philosophy and the governing principles of his farming systems have been applied from Africa to the temperate northern hemisphere. In India, natural farming is often referred to as "Rishi Kheti".[11][12]
Principally, natural farming minimises human labour and adopts, as closely as practical, nature's production of foods such as rice, barley, daikon or citrus in biodiverse agricultural ecosystems. Without plowing, seeds germinate well on the surface if site conditions meet the needs of the seeds planted there. Fukuoka used the presence of spiders in his fields as a key performance indicator of sustainability.[citation needed]}
The ground always remains covered by weeds, white clover, alfalfa, herbaceous legumes, and sometimes deliberately sown herbaceous plants. Ground cover is present along with grain, vegetable crops and orchards. Chickens run free in orchards and ducks and carp populate rice fields.[13]
Periodically ground layer plants including weeds may be cut and left on the surface, returning their nutrients to the soil, while suppressing weed growth. This also facilitates the sowing of more seeds in the same area.[how?]
For summer rice and winter barley grain crops, ground cover enhances nitrogen fixation. Straw from the previous crop mulches the topsoil. Each grain crop is sown before the previous one is harvested by broadcasting the seed among the standing crop. Later, this method was reduced to a single direct seeding of clover, barley and rice over the standing heads of rice.[14] The result is a denser crop of smaller but highly productive and stronger plants.
Fukuoka's practice and philosophy emphasised small scale operation and challenged the need for mechanised farming techniques for high productivity, efficiency and economies of scale. While his family's farm was larger than the Japanese average, he used one field of grain crops as a small-scale example of his system.

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