Worming towards LEISA and Organic Farming Techniques

Simply meaning that instead of looking for expensive external farming inputs (chemical fertilizers, chemical weed killers, insecticides and pest control chemicals), the clever farmer should find items and materials available locally and inexpensively to do the same or better job as the expensive external inputs. For instance, a flock of geese on the farm could do a great job to keep snails and other insects under control, while at the same time providing a renewable source of meat and eggs to feed the farmer's family. And they are good for security!

In the same way super vermicompost, produced on the farm from waste materials, and making use of the free labour provided by the little helpers, could go a long way towards replacing expensive chemical fertilizers. And vermicompost is good for building up the soils, putting carbon sources and essential microbes (good bugs) back into the place where they belong, the place that Mother Nature prepared for them over the ages.

So LEISA is about helping to create a positive "balance of payments" for the farm - more money should flow in to the farm than what would otherwise flow out. One important aspect of this positive balance is to purchase as little as positive expensive external inputs for farming operations. And super vermicompost, produced on the farm, fits right into the LEISA philosophy.

Organic farming techniques go one step further, namely to receive certification (proof) that no harmful substances were used in the farming operations. Good quality compost (also certified as organic) is an essential input for formal organic farming techniques. However, for produce to be certified organic could be very expensive, especially for a small-scale farmer. Then your pack house, cold chain and transport system also needs to be certified organic, adding more complications.

Therefore our advice for emerging farmers is to learn their trade through LEISA techniques, and not to attempt to go all the way to certified organic without having the skills and experience to make a success of that. The Internet is full of very useful tips on how to farm better with low external inputs.

Using a chicken tractor to work the soil for you, is also something that can be incorporated into community vegetable gardens.

A chicken tractor is basically a bottomless cage built from old material. It allows the chickens to scratch and eat off of the ground such things as grass, weeds, bugs, worms, etc. The chicken tractor is moved to a fresh spot on a daily basis. The chicken manure goes directly onto the soil where it fertilises the soil.

Chicken tractors are perfect for a small number of chickens.