Fukuoka had warned of disaster in B'lore

Fukuoka had warned of disaster in B'lore
By Subhash Chandra NS, DH News Service, Bangalore:

Natural farming pioneer and Ramon Magsaysay award winner, Masanobu Fukuoka, who passed away in Japan on Sunday night, had warned of disasters in Bangalore City if its green cover was continuously depleted. Even as the world of organic and natural farmers mourns Fukuoka’s death, City-based farmer Narayana Reddy recollects the late pioneer’s visit to Bangalore in 1988.

Fukuoka was here on the invitation of Shantinikethan, which honoured him with the Deshikottam Award. He had made a brief stopover at Bengalore enroute to Puducherry.

The author of ''The One Straw Revolution,'' who visited Naryana Reddy’s farm spent nearly three hours acquiring knowledge regarding the farming practices in the State. “He went around the farm and appreciated the growth of dense trees. He was referred to me by a Christian missionary in White Field, and since I am an organic farmer, he was eager to meet me,” he explained.

He said that having seen the City and the population in the City, Fukuoka had observed that it had to match its population outburst with adequate green cover to provide an unpolluted atmosphere.

A staunch follower of the Gandhi and Buddha, Fukuoka would recollect their preachings every now and then and would speak of life in co-operation with nature.

An ardent lover of nature, Reddy has vowed to plant a tree everyday until his death. His inspiration was Fukuoka himself, who used to follow it. “It is hard to digest the fact that he is no more, it is a great loss to the world of natural farming,” he said.

Fukoka, a microbiologists quit his job as a research scientist and devoted his life to develop a unique small scale organic farming system that does not require weeding, pesticide or fertiliser applications, or tilling.

His system of farming known as natural farming or Fukuoka farming became so popular world wide that his book ‘One Straw Revolution’ became a bible to many farmers who wanted to farm without pesticides and chemical fertilisers. The book has been translated to several languages.