Traditional agriculture is notorious for not supporting other life forms.
Permaculture works on the principle that the less you interfere with nature the better.
These farmers let their plants evolve into forests, even welcome insects and small animals.
Operational details:
- A permaculture plot can be as small as a single acre or as large as a forest. The guiding principles remain the same.
- Tall, hardy trees form an outer perimeter. Trees with large canopies, like mango, are planted here and there to offer shade to the shrubs.
- The shrubs are typically perennials like lemongrass, tulsi, kadipatta and drumstick, which offer diversity and contribute to mulch.
- The inner zones are designed to grow nutrient-intensive cash crops like maize along with legumes like beans, which provide nitrogen to enrich the soil.
- There are further zones for aquaculture, poultry and bee-keeping.
To the untrained eye, a permaculture farm may look like a patch of wilderness in a neglected backyard. When it looks like that, you know it’s working!
The idea is to switch from the slash-and-burn model of agriculture to a gentler, more permanent formula where fruit trees shade vegetable patches, perennial plants grow, are picked and plucked from, perish, form mulch, feed other plants, and start over. Where birds can eventually make their homes — where bees and insects thrive, and eventually small animals arrive to nibble or hunt. Where Man has only a passing influence.
Read more:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle/meet-the-people-growing-food-forests-in-their-backyards/story-GzCJFhn66sooNePVyv3P1J.html
https://permacultureprinciples.com/
