Back Rev. Yasushi Matsumoto
Chairman of the Board, International Nature Faming Research Center, Atami, Japan
I am very thankful and pleased that this Fifth International Conference on Kyusei Nature Farming is being held in Thailand. This Conference was originally planned to be held in the Peoples Republic of China. However, unexpected circumstances made it impossible to hold the conference in Beijing and we hurriedly decided to hold it here in Thailand. I am extremely grateful to Rev. Kazuo Wakugami, the general Advisor to APNAN, the staff of APNAN and those who worked hard for their diligent work and extraordinary effort to make this conference a reality, in spite of the short period of two weeks that was available for changing the venue. I also thank Professor Li Wei Jiong of the China Agricultural University and the staff of the original organizing committee for their effort made to hold the conference in Beijing.
Mokichi Okada, the founder of Kyusei Nature Farming, advocated the principles of Kyusei Nature Farming in 1948. The fundamental concept was to allow the soil to exhibit its potential power to its fullest capacity without using chemical fertilizers or untreated night soil.
Japan adopted the technologies of modern agriculture after the Second World War, to solve problems of food shortage. This led to the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Although Japan managed to overcome the food crisis, various adverse effects of these chemicals and of continued cropping developed. The soil lost its balance of nutrients and the incidence of pests was more frequent than in earlier times. This led to situations where stable crop production was not feasible. Under such circumstances Mokichi Okada observed the cause of these problems, which was the excessive use of chemicals. Hence he appealed to the public to solve this problem through nature farming. This was the inception of Kyusei Nature Farming.
Mokichi Okada claimed that chemical fertilizers and pesticides were not only harmful to soils, but also to humans, where the health of both producers and consumers would be adversely affected. He also stated clearly that the soil would be polluted and productivity affected.
In order to save the farmers who were responsible for producing food with a superior quality for human consumption, and to assist the consumers who used these contaminated food, thereby saving humankind from a food crisis, Mokichi Okada made every effort to promote nature farming. He strongly believed that the promotion of this method of farming would eventually save the world.
The basis of the teaching of Mokichi Okada was that all life on earth follows the rules of mother nature. Hence agriculture also should respect nature and conform to its laws. This meant that the concept of caring for the soil should consider the purification of soil and thus facilitate the exhibition of its capacity to produce and sustain crops without using chemicals. Therefore, in 1951, Mokichi Okada published a booklet describing the results of his study on organic agriculture in other countries, In the introduction of this booklet, he mentioned a theory of a scholar, which describes the beneficial activities of microorganisms in the soil as components supporting the principles of growing crops in living soil.
The principles and philosophy of Mokichi Okada which facilitated the development of living soils was combined with the technology of Effective Microorganisms in 1982. The inclusion of the technology, developed by Professor Dr. Teruo Higa of the University of Ryukyus gave birth to Kyusei Nature Farming. Using EM Nature Farming until this time was not accepted by the general public as it had not developed into a system of farming at low cost with a lower input of labour. With the inclusion of EM, the concept was accessible to all.
The concept of using Kyusei Nature Farming along with the technology of EM to produce safe and healthy food while conserving the environment needs to have five requirements. These as imposed by us at the International Nature Farming Research Center are -
In order to satisfy these requirements, we at the International Nature Farming Research Center are working on a program of research and development, while promoting this method of farming. Therefore, the objective of this conference is to contribute to the advancement of agricultural production, protection of human health and preservation of the environment by introducing the concepts of Kyusei Nature Farming using EM Technology to as many people as possible.
We hope that you will actively help us establish this method of farming as one that will bring the most significant benefit to humankind in the 21st century, by introducing it to various regions of he world. I sincerely hope that his will happen in the very near future.
I express my sincere thanks to all who made this conference possible and hope that it will be productive and useful.
Thank you.