Healing the Soil
When I was a child, I loved to make a toy cake from dirt. I also loved to make a toy sculpture from clay that I found around my parents’ farm. I used to play with dirt only just for fun. However, when I grew up, I just realize that playing with dirt actually can be a fulfilling and therapeutic experience.
A few months ago, I was trying to reconnect myself with dirt by trying to learn how to grow some corn seeds. Actually, I’m not really skilled in farming, even though I have a strong family background in farming. Therefore, as a farmer’s daughter and as (a self-proclaimed environmentalist), I think I need to learn farming from my father. I don’t want to just learn about the theory, but I also really want to know the practicality of agriculture. I also really want to have a strong connection with mother earth just like how my parents have a strong connection with plants that they grow.
The first thing that we have to do to grow the seeds is tilling the soil. Unfortunately, I cannot do this, so I asked someone who works on the farm to help me to till the soil. And then, I tried to pour some organic materials on the land. At the time, we used cocopeat and sheep manure. Before I poured those materials, I had to mix the cocopeat and sheep manure by using my own hand. I thought it would be disgusting, but turns out it became a satisfying activity for me. After that, I planted and watered the seeds. Unfortunately, since that moment, I didn’t have time to visit my farm again because I was still busy with my undergraduate thesis and my part-time job. Hence, my father managed the plants for me. He always sent me the picture of the plants so that I could see how it grew up.
At that moment, my father just finished reading a book entitled “One’s Straw Revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka. This book is about natural farming. He was so impressed with the natural farming concept introduced by Fukuoka, especially on the idea of no-till farming. He believes that tilling the land frequently would decrease the quality of the soil and it would make the soil barren; thus, we became so dependent on chemical fertilizer. Furthermore, tilling the soil requires high production cost too. Hence, my father tried to apply the concept of natural farming to the plant that we grew together.
According to Fukuoka, in order for the soil to keep healthy, we can cover the soil by using straws. This method can keep the soil moist and protect the plants from weeds. Besides that, the straw would also make the soil becomes more fertile because the straw would be decomposed and produced many organisms needed to make the soil fertile. However, since we don’t have any straw on our farm, so my father used dried grass to cover the land. And surprisingly, the land became so fertile and the plants looked so healthy too.
After growing this corn, the soil remained healthy. We don’t have to till it again for the next crops. However, this natural farming experiment was only done on a very small scale and now we planned to implement it on a bigger scale (but it will still step by step because somehow chemical fertilizer is also needed). I hope this natural farming concept can be implemented on a larger scale so that we can heal the soil without being dependent on chemical fertilizer and tractor too. Most importantly, according to our estimation, this natural farming concept offers a lower production cost, unlike organic farming that sometimes requires higher production cost. Hence, this method can be more affordable for smallholder farmers.
Reflecting on my father’s story in healing the soil just reminded me that nature has actually provided us a perfect ecosystem to live in. Yet, we often ignore and exploit it just for the sake of our greed. Not only nature that suffers from this greedy exploitation, but powerless actors like smallholder farmers also often being trapped in this greedy system. For example, they become dependent on chemical fertilizer and pesticides that would only make their land losing its fertility.
I think we have to view soil as more than just a growing media. In Islam, we are taught that humans are made from the soil and God even allowed us to use dirt to purify our body. Hence, I believe that we have to give a higher value to the soil. It’s just not a growing media, but it’s part of nature that connects with us. There are a million lives of organisms living in the soil just like how we live on this earth. So, let’s heal and protect the soil because it’s more than just a growing media, it’s living soil.
