I am reading a very happy report by ANN published by CaneCo in its website: “Trash Farming – Simple But Effective!” (Author Not Named, 21 Dec 2020, CaneCo, caneco.gd). CaneCo is located in Grenada in the Antilles Archipelago. ANN says:
The concept of trash farming – or simply put mulching – has been around for a long time in the sugar cane industry and scientifically studied since around the 1950s. It’s only in recent decades though that sugarcane producers have really started paying attention to preserving soil fertility this way.
In the Philippines, UPLB professor Teodoro C Mendoza says rice straw is still only used as feed for cattle, not recycled in the field; for sugarcane, 36% of trash is returned to the soil (“Enhancing Crop Residues Recycling in the Philippine Landscape,” uploaded 03 May 2015, downloadable from ResearchGate, researchgate.net).
About trash farming in rice, I have a personal story – that happened after I discovered Faulkner’s books. That time, my father Dionisio was preparing our 1 ha of land for rice in Domanpot in our hometown Asingan, Pangasinan, and he had engaged the services of a big Howard tractor with rotavator. This was my chance to be innovative. Inspired by what I learned from Faulkner, I ordered the Howard operator to set to zero the cutting of the blades, just run them over the field, thank you very much!
Some 15 or 20 years later, my brother-in-law Enso Casasos, who was present as our farmhand and heard & saw everything during that Domanpot rotavator episode, told me in Ilocano (I’m translating freely now): “Manong, do you remember what you told the Howard operator? He was smiling in one corner of his mouth!” (“umis-isem isuna ti bangbangir!”)
Why because the tractor was only rolling along on the field, barely consuming oil, not digging the soil. What the Howard operator did not know was that the rotavator blades were actually cutting the soil andthe weeds into nice pieces and mixing them at the same time in one rotary motion – not part of learning how to drive a tractor with a rotavator, is it? This actually and effectively and automaticallylaid a layer of trash all over the field – organic matter at your prayer request!
I now call the process “Rotavator Organic WEALth – Weeds-Enriched Automatic Layer of Trash to Trigger Terrestrial Health.” (See my 16 Feb 2022 essay, “For A Happier & Healthier Habitat Philippines! Triple A For Agriculture,” Towards A New Eden, Blogspot.com).
Rotavator Organic WEALth is what I can offer rice farmers and sugarcane growers, among other farmers in the Philippines and the rest of the world – and it is what I can proudly demonstrate to CaneCo in the Antilles Archipelago!@517
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