Thanks for this. Great effort.

[quote=ParaOpticaL,Jan 26 2007, 02:14 PM]
Hello People,

we are proud to inform that a bunch of us (you guys know who you are) had just finished publishing an Agri & Aqua Culturing Newsletter.

its available for download for FREE

What you are referring to sounds like a permaculture practice, that is, using nature to work for itself. I am planning a similar venture where I grow my own food supply and sell the surplus to the local community. No middle man. Thus far, the idea of permaculture has been about cultivating abundance though the 'commercial' aspects have not been laid out in solid terms but it is possible. It would be a market of its own, not centralized like those mega supermarkets. Commercial systems have no regards for seasons. If they want tomatoes to be supplied, they would want it all year round. That is not sustainable nor is it natural.

It may not be appealing to those who'd like to earn mega big bucks from agriculture but it's rewarding and definitely leaves a positive impact on health and environment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZDnKwHQBp8

If you are interested in a permaculture course, there will be one held locally. I highly recommend as it will adjust your mindset about what should be prioritized. It's an intense 2 weeks course. I did mine last year and have no regrets. Hope this helps.

http://murujan.com/2013/08/15/permaculture...-malaysia-2014/

Thanks. Yes, I've contacted DQ farm before asking if they'd let me do 'attachment' so I can learn. Unfortunately, the farm is not open for public visit, much less an internship. However, they are sharing their practices on their FB page so that's a consolation.

The Permaculture course is simply a spring board into itself. There is no way everything can be covered in two weeks. For those who are interested, the real work begins after the course and this involves continuous learning because nature is just so profound in its ways. Permaculture is a marriage of two terms - permanent culture and some say permanent agriculture. Basically it's ethical design science ie. using nature to provide abundance not just for oneself but to those around and at the same time to flourish the environment. I won't go into the history of how the permaculture movement came about.

The course prepares the participants to be permaculture consultants who should have the basics to handle a permaculture project anywhere in the world. So for that two weeks, they went through practically every climate and terrain, which was overwhelming I have to admit. I went for the course just to learn more so I can apply to the climate and terrain here in the tropics. I was quite surprised at the broad range of participants. There were Americans, French, a New Zealander, lady from China, Hong Kong and another from Bangladesh. The teacher is from Turkey and he learned directly from Bill Mollison, founder of the permaculture movement. Seems I got more than what I bargained for. So, it ultimately depends on which direction one wishes to go. Some become full time permaculture teachers, others become consultants. Me, I prefer to do small time farming.

The concept can be applied to not just agriculture but at the work place, school and so on. The idea is to fully utilize an element, thus giving it more than one purpose/use. I'll give you an example. At DQ farms, no part of their chicken is wasted. The meat is eaten and sold... obviously. However, leftovers like blood is turned into fertilizer. Bones and feathers are composted back to the soil. In permaculture, livestocks are treated as working partners and not slaves or commodity. Chickens are used to prepare the land instead of manual tilling. They don't just rake up the ground, they fertilize them with manure as well. So that's an example of using an element to provide many uses.

One reason why we need so much fertilizer and pesticides is because our soil is dead. Actually here in the tropics, we have more sand than soil. Healthy soil will inevitably produce healthy crops. And in nature, trees and plants do not grow in neat straight rows. Hence, in permaculture, plants are grown in groups or 'guilds'. Another familiar term is companion planting. Before doing so, one should read up on suitable companion plants. Some plants like bamboo are allelopathic. That means they inhibit the growth of others around them. If I remember, plants of the same genus/species, get along very well. Companion planting has many benefits as some plants support each other. Some are nitrogen fixers and these tend to have deep roots and they help to bring the minerals up to the ground so when you mulch them, they feed the others with shallow roots. Someone was asking about having ladybugs to help with keeping the vegetables pest free. I've read that they love to settle down in nettles. But what do we do when we see nettles? We cut them or spray herbicide. By the way, here in the tropics, the most efficient plants to grow would be fruit trees and for livestocks, it's aquaculture.

Permaculture promotes diverse interaction between plants and animals because that is how it was created to be. What we have done in modern agriculture is to try to turn this natural system in a factory. Of course, nature does not work like a factory. That's why we have so much issues. So we try to control it with chemicals and machines.

If you look at a modern chicken farm, you'll understand the term factory better. As chicks, their beaks are cut off so they won't peck each other as this leaves ugly marks on their skin. By the way, healthy chickens rarely peck one another because they have plenty of space to roam around. But with a broken beak, they can never live as a normal chicken and look for food like worms and insects in the ground. Well, they don't have to because they will not see a real ground anyway. They are instead kept in cages, fed with cheap grain and given hormones to make them fat in the shortest time possible. Why? To maximize profits of course. Problem is, hormones, unlike chemicals, stay in the human body. Also, these chickens are cramped together like how they cramp those foreign workers in their dormitories. To keep them alive, antibiotics are given. The air inside the chicken farm is loaded with faecal dust. That's why you'd have to wear masks before going in. But the chickens don't wear masks right? They breathe in their own poop dust every single day. So much so that it ends up in their blood. They don't get enough exercise that they can hardly stand up. But this is NORMAL as long as the farm owner is raking in profits.

Sorry for the long winded post. I hope I did not come across as some 'holier than thou' preacher. After living in the city all my life, I've concluded that our food and our life is pretty messed up. I'm still learning and hope someday, I can provide for myself, family, neighbours and community some real wholesome food.

If you have time please watch this video. It's one of the best I've seen on urban permaculture. I really envy this couple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iSaRzjxL3E

Does anyone have any contacts for rental of excavator/backhoe for Melaka area? I'm also looking for contacts who can do fencing (chain link) with concrete posts. Or are metal posts better?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I agree there isn't a 'specific' way of doing things. However, most of us tend to copy or emulate what others have done so as to minimize risks and maybe because that's just the way it is. Until someone else comes along and proves that there is a better way. This, of course, requires tenacity and patience. Most of us are afraid of 'failure' but that's normal. On top of that, we may not have the resource and time for an extensive trial and error process.

I think you are referring to the video from the first link. That's Geoff Lawton and he's an outstanding proponent of the permaculture practice. Gravity fed water uses no electricity and that requires prior planning. In permaculture, the very first element to tackle is water. How to retain water (whether through storage or in the soil) for the longest time possible because every resource has a way to escape. And water is a prime essential resource. For those on flat ground, what is normally recommended is storage tanks to store rain water collected from the roof gutter. Another way is to have a lot of groundcover to prevent the soil from drying up. Some people call these weeds.

Hi. I found this article and it might be of some help.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=1...389543911121195

[quote=ah_suknat,Feb 17 2015, 11:13 PM]guys...any one know if Black Soldier Larvae Farming is suitable with our weather?


Something to consider since bsf do pretty well in our climate.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201406/bernhar...-into-food.html

This post has been edited by mono_stereo: Jul 26 2015, 02:50 PM