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cooler composting is practiced, and plant materials are preferred over animal materials. Soil is often combined with the compost to inoculate the pile with microbes. Without human waste recycling, however, nutrients and organic matter are constantly removed from the soil (as food that is consumed by the farmer) and flushed away. Therefore, when safe and legal human waste recycling is possible—as in many places it already is—that fertility can, and should, be returned to the soil. Another great unappreciated source of compost and soil improvement is the roots of crops themselves, which, in the biointensive system are left to decompose in the soil, where they help to both fertilize and “sew it together”, creating stable soil structure. Thus, crops such as alfalfa, which has exceptionally deep roots, and cereal rye, which has a particularly high volume of roots, are valued.
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410:. Despite the fact that no soil has been added, the bed is raised due to the aeration. It is worth noting that hard, unworked soil should be double dug each season until the soil has attained good structure and long lasting aeration. During subsequent seasons, it can be surface cultivated 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) deep with a hula hoe until compaction again becomes apparent. After double digging the first season, deep tilling during subsequent seasons can be quickly accomplished with a
398:. When the next trench is dug, that soil is dropped into the empty space of the first trench, and the lower layer is again loosened with a spading fork. This process is repeated along the full length of the bed. The final trench is filled with the soil that was removed from the first trench. The result is a bed that has been tilled to a depth of 24 inches (610 mm). When an entire bed has been double dug, the soil will have greater
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productivity are practiced without integrating the techniques concerning sustainable soil fertility, the soil may be depleted even more rapidly than with conventional farming methods. The most important element for building and maintaining sustainable soil fertility is the growing of 60% compost crops, proper composting techniques that incorporate the right balance of
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The Whole System: biointensive experts emphasize that because these techniques can result in intense productivity and high yields, the system must be practiced as a whole in order to prevent rapid soil exhaustion. The goal of the biointensive method is sustainability, but if the techniques concerning
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In order to achieve these benefits, the biointensive method uses an eight-part integrated system of deep soil cultivation (“double-digging”) to create raised, aerated beds; intensive planting; companion planting; composting; the use of open-pollinated seeds; and a carefully balanced planting ratio of
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Sustainable bio-intensive farming (BIF) system, which emphasizes biodiversity conservation; recycling of nutrients; synergy among crops, animals, soils, and other biological components; and regeneration and conservation of resources is a type of agro-ecological approach. This alternative can approach
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The challenge is that by 2014, 90% of the world’s people will only have access to about 4,500 sq ft of farmable land per person, if they leave an equal area in a wild state to protect plant and animal genetic diversity and the world’s ecosystems! As you will see from the information that follows on
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Livestock can fit into a system, but it usually takes a larger area . Normally it takes about 40,000 sq ft of grazing land for 1 cow/steer (for milk/meat) or 2 goats (for milk/meat/wool), or 2 sheep (for milk/meat/wool). With and maximizing the edible calorie output in your vegan diet design, one
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farming, care is given to growing enough food energy (and other nutrients) to live on in a minimal area. Root crops are often used in calorie farming because they allow biointensive farmers and gardeners to grow more nutrients in smaller areas, resulting in less labor per calorie, and more space for
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Journal of
Sustainable Agriculture (Vol. 19 (2), 2001, p. 81-83) shows that biointensive methods can enable small-scale farms and farmers to significantly increase food production and income, utilize predominantly local, renewable resources and decrease expense and energy inputs while building
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In addition to
Ecology Action, which provides public outreach in the form of workshops, internship and apprenticeship programs, and public tours of their biointensive research mini-farm in Willits, CA, examples of groups and organizations around the world that use and teach biointensive techniques
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are 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 1.8 m) wide, usually 5 ft (1.5 m) and at least 5 feet (1.5 m) long, often 20 feet (6 m), forming a bed of 100 square feet (10 m). Crops are not planted in traditional rows according to a square pattern, but are planted in a hexagonal or triangular pattern in the bed so
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The biointensive method provides many benefits as compared with conventional farming and gardening methods, and is an inexpensive, easily implemented sustainable production method that can be used by people who lack the resources (or desire) to implement commercial chemical and fossil-fuel-based
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Composting allows the plants to transform and enrich the soil with organic matter, and also to return nutrients to the soil. Biointensive composting is fairly straightforward, emphasizing the health and diversity of the microbes that break down and become a part of the compost. Thus, relatively
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diet. This does not mean that biointensive farming must exclude the raising of animals. Animals, while not considered by biointensive practitioners to be sustainable, can be incorporated into biointensive systems, although they increase the amount of land and labor required considerably. The
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on a closed system basis, the biointensive method uses carbon and calorie farming, an aikido-style of work (using the least amount of energy or effort to achieve the greatest amount of work or production), composting—including safe and legal human waste recycling—the use of
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and concentrate them in the compost, thus allowing a redistribution of those nutrients to the food crops. This proportion of 60% compost crops is crucial to the sustainability that is the goal of the biointensive method, and to the fertility of the
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crops qualify as compost crops, but provide both food and abundant compost. Some of the compost crops may be grown during the winter, when the land would be otherwise unused. Certain compost crops are higher in carbon while others are higher in
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The article goes on to estimate the square footage required to grow fodder for various animals (and compost to replenish the soil), and provides a discussion on whether animal manure should be used as a fertilizer/compost supplement.
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and/or fix nitrogen in the soil, and the desired proportion of each must be grown for the compost to achieve maximum effectiveness. Also, certain compost crops take particular desired nutrients from the
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are started in flats or nursery beds, so that more garden space is available to large plants and so that the seedlings can be more closely spaced before transplant, forming a living mulch in the flat as
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seeds ensures genetic diversity, and allows the farmer to be self-sufficient, harvesting seeds from his or her own plants, and cultivating varieties which are best suited to that particular region.
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crops are grown in about sixty percent of the cultivated land, they can provide the compost materials that maintain the fertility for one hundred percent of the cultivated land. Many
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that no space is left unnecessarily unused. These wide beds and close spacings not only allow more plants per area (up to 4 times as many), but also enable the plants to form a living
520:. These crops can produce as much as 5 to 20 times the calories per unit of area per unit of time. In biointensive farming, 30% of the land cultivated for food is used for root crops.
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The soil air from the development of deep soil structure, combined with the microbe- and nutrient-rich compost allow the crops to be planted intensively. To plant intensively,
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seeds, and limited land use, which allows farmers and gardeners to retain more of the land in a wild state for genetic diversity and an ecosystem balance.
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which maps the city's farmable land and uses biointensive as a reference point to enable its residents to determine how much food their land can produce.
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Reduce by 50% or more the amount of land required to grow a comparable amount of food. This allows more land to remain in a wild state, preserving
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How to Grow More
Vegetables: And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine
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How to Grow More
Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains and other crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine
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60% Carbon-Rich Crops (for compost production) 30% Calorie-Rich Crops (for food) and an optional 10% planted in Income Crops (for sale).
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that can appropriately address the central issue of hunger, poverty, food / nutrition insecurity and livelihoods (Rajbhandari, 1999).
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According to
Jeavons and other proponents, when properly implemented, farmers using biointensive techniques have the potential to:
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wilderness and other people. These crops—which have both a high calorie content per pound, and a high yield per area—include
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Many of the techniques that contribute to the biointensive method were present in the agriculture of the ancient
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following is excerpted from an article on the topic of integrating animals into a biointensive system from the
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The following outline of the methods approximates the descriptions found in the popular biointensive handbook,
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Produce 2 to 6 times more food at intermediate yields, assuming a reasonable level of farmer skill and
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farmers in developing countries, and also has been used successfully on small-scale commercial farms.
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Use up to 99% less energy than commercial agriculture, while using a fraction of the resources.
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Companion planting is described as taking place both in space, which is traditionally called
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from a minimum area of land, while simultaneously increasing biodiversity and sustaining the
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over the soil, keeping in moisture and shading out weeds. Additionally, whenever possible
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person’s complete balanced diet can be grown on about 4,000 sq ft—a much smaller area.
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Double digging with spade and fork loosens the soil, to increase drainage and aeration.
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The
Sustainable Vegetable Garden: A Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil and Higher Yields
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the land requirements for incorporating livestock, this becomes a challenge.
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in located in
Providence, Rhode Island, which uses the biointensive method.
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compost materials, and when possible, safe and legal human waste recycling.
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Use 50% to 100% less purchased (organic, locally available) fertilizer.
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Grow
Biointensive System, a tool to fight against desertification
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Use 67% to 88% less water than conventional agricultural methods.
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basis. It is particularly effective for backyard gardeners and
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The biointensive method typically concentrates on the
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United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
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754:Biointensive Agriculture Center of Kenya (G-BIACK)
16:Organic agricultural system based on maximum yield
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326:Worldwide Loss of Soil – and a Possible Solution
315:Ecology Action's research (Jeavons, J.C., 2001.
263:fertility. The goal of the method is long term
442:, and in time, which is traditionally called
53:Learn how and when to remove these messages
351:Produce a 100% increase in soil fertility.
324:at a rate 60 times faster than in nature (
704:John Jeavons, 10 Speed Press, 2012. 256p.
611:Biointensive Agriculture in Fouta Djallon
230:Learn how and when to remove this message
212:Learn how and when to remove this message
110:Learn how and when to remove this message
299:) from at least the late 18th century.
73:This article includes a list of general
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759:Manor House Agricultural Centre (MHAC)
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39:improve it
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595:See also
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494:potatoes
476:nitrogen
400:drainage
320:fertile
202:May 2016
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544:Animals
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