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ANNEX II:
AGROCHEMICAL AGRICULTURE THE NEED FOR A SANER ALTERNATIVE
The Dilemma of
Chemical Fertilization
Pesticide Poisons
Biologically Sound Alternatives
To Pesticides
The Promise of Clean Organiculture
Methods
A Recent International
Initiative in Clean Organiculture
References
THE DILEMMA OF CHEMICAL FERTILIZATION
The worldwide use of commercial chemical fertilizers and pesticides has increased by
factors of 9 and 32 respectively, during the recent 35 year period.1 For an appreciation of the impact of this on soil and plant nutrition we should
consider the observation of Chesworth:
Geochemically, farming is a kind of rape, with annual harvests removing plant nutrients one or two orders of magnitude faster than . . . (natural processes) can replace them. . . . The inherent fertility of soil, a renewable resource, is largely ignored in modern mechanized agriculture in favour of chemical fertilizers largely mined from non-renewable deposits. A saner attitude once should be re examined as a possible basis for future strategies.2
A highly significant practical concern is the increasingly high costs associated with agrochemical fertilizers, coupled to their incapacity to provide a range of essential micro nutrients to the soil.
Since the energy crises of the seventies, the cost of artificial fertilizer has increased at least three fold, and most tropical countries are faced by severe restrictions in foreign currency. The second drawback is that commercial fertilizers are invariably incomplete. They look after N, P and K, but most of the minor nutrients are left out . . . With this form of agriculture becoming increasingly beyond the means of the Developing World, alternatives are needed. 3
A further critical question that is rarely given due consideration is
the popularly promulgated belief that synthetically developed chemicals bear no difference
from those which naturally occur in the biosphere. In response to this view, eminently
successful horticulturist D. Phillips contends that such a view overlooks the highly vital
"life force" factor. In his words "A synthetic chemical can appear to
represent a natural one only to the extent that a waxen image is a dummy of its living
model."4
PESTICIDE POISONS
Throughout the Developing World, it is estimated that close to a million people are
annually poisoned by pesticides, of which 40,000 die. It is also well worth noting in
comparison with the Developed World, "the incidence of pesticide poisoning is 13
times higher in the Third World." To give but one example, in Sri Lanka where there
was not a single death from malaria in 1978, in that same year it is estimated that there
were 1,000 deaths from pesticide poisoning.5
Not only is there an accelerated use of pesticides as pests adapt to and resist these
poisons, but the pesticide manufacturers make them ever more deadly. This all seems very
strange, when we consider that extensive research conducted by Cornell University
Entomologist, David Pimentel (editor of the Handbook of Pest Management in Agriculture,
CRC Press, 1981) and others, confirms that data covering the last four decades indicate a
direct cause and effect relationship between pesticide dependency--along with other large
scale agribusiness techniques and highly significant increases in crop losses due to pest
damage.
"The share of crop yields lost to insects has nearly doubled (7% to 13%) during the
last 40 years, despite a more than 10-fold increase in the amount and toxicity of
synthetic insecticide used." As if this wasn't damning enough, it has also been found
that "often less than 0. 1 %" of pesticide applications actually reach the
targeted pest(s).6
BIOLOGICALLY SOUND ALTERNATIVES
TO PESTICIDES
To give only one example in the developing world of the potential for local alternatives
to toxic pesticides, while visiting Thailand's Reanunakom District Health Centre's
Traditional Herbal Medicine Program (Nakhon Phanom Province), I found that there has been
successful development of and early field trials for non-toxic plant source alternatives
to chemical pesticides. The biological product shown, had as its base a locally growable
variety of lemon grass.
In my discussion with the Program Coordinator P. Tongyus, it became evident that there
remains a considerable potential for villages to raise the basic ingredients as a means of
replacing their present dependence on commercial chemical pest control products.
Furthermore, there remains potential for large scale industrial production of such
non-toxic herbal pest control products, if interest could be further generated,
investments made, and appropriate marketing channels established.
THE PROMISE OF CLEAN ORGANICULTURE
METHODS
It is also of compelling interest that little acknowledged, albeit superior agricultural
methods such as the "clean culture" system (see pp. ??? in main text) developed
by Sampson Morgan bear great promise not merely for preventing disease and human
degeneration, but for alleviating the crippling effects of starvation in the
underdeveloped regions of earth.
At the time of Morgan's experiments the average potato yield for the world, stood at about
6 tons per acre, that of wheat 15 bushels. In the words of Morgan, I broke all records for
potatoes . . . digging fine samples at the rate of 65 tons an acre, a success never
achieved by any other experimenter." As for wheat, he was able to produce up to 100
bushels per acre. He correctly perceived that the bankruptcy of the soil means the
impoverishment of the people; both in quality and quantity of food provided. In his words
"'ne colossal loss of foodstuffs through the present system is criminal." His
products included the largest apple that had ever been recorded at 34-1/2 oz and nearly
I-1/2 ft in circumference. Additionally "clean culture" methods produced plants
far more impervious to adverse weather conditions, including frost. The shelf life of
produce was also greatly extended.7
A further major benefit of clean culture--of great significance to more and regions--is
the fact that porous rock based "mulches" are generally highly potent in
reducing evaporation of water from the soil. In fact, evidence suggests that such mulches
actually serve to extract "moisture from humid atmospheres."8
A RECENT
INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE IN CLEAN ORGANICULTURE
With support from Canada's International Development Research Centre, the University of
Guelph (Ontario) Department of Land Resources Science--in cooperation with various
Tanzanian universities in the late 80's undertook an historic applied research initiative
on the potential of locally accessible rock dust (what the University has coined as
agro-geology) applications to restore what has become largely infertile and acid soils in
the Mbeya, Morogoro and Mbozi regions of Tanzania.
At its outset, Johnson Somoka of Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania
realistically projected that through rock dust fertilization:
(This particular project's level of success, and potential for replication was assessed upon its completion in 1991.)9
1 MacNeill, et al, CIDA and Sustainable Development, The Institute for Research on
Public Policy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1989
2 Chesworth, W., "Late Cenozoic Geology and the Second Oldest
Profession," Department of Land Resource Science, University of Guelph, Guelph,
Canada, published in Geoscience Canada, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1981, pp. 54-56
3 Chesworth, W., et al, "Agricultural Alchemy: Stones Into Bread," Episodes,
Vol. 1983, No. 1, p. 3
4 Phillips, David A., From Soil to Psyche, Woodbridge Press Publishing Company,
Santa Barbara, California, USA, 1977, p. 195
·5 Chetelat, L.J., A Synthesis of Key Issues for Evaluation in Eaanded Programs of
Immunization, prepared for CIDA Policy Branch, Evaluation Division, Hull, Canada,
January, 1990, p. 36
6 Pimental, D., personal communication, May 8, 1990; Pimental, D., et at, Environmental
and Economic Impacts of Reduciniz US Agricultural Pesticide Use, draft text, Cornell
University Department of Entomology, October, 1989, p. 4; and Pimental, D., and Levitan,
L., Pesticides: "Amounts Applied and Amounts Reaching Pests," Bioscience,
American Institute of Biological Science, Washington, DC, Vol. 36, No. 2, February, 1986,
p. 86
7 Morgan, S., Clean Culture--The New Soil Science, Health Research, Mokelumne Hill,
California, reprint of 1918 Edition, whole text
8 Chesworth, Agricultural Alchemy, p. 5
9 Toomy, G., "Agrogeology--Rocks in the Service of Soil"--The IDRC Reports,
Ottawa, Canada, July, 1986, pp. 12-13