Re: truly self sufficient (and therefore self-sustaining) farmers

YankeePerm@aol.com
Sat, 21 Dec 1996 08:31:45 -0500

In a message dated 12/20/96 7:46:11 PM, jvworstell@juno.com (vard vardson)
wrote:

>Dan,
>
>If you live in Ocala, Florida and you want to learn, you can probably
>grow rice somewhere near your shallow pond/swamp. Not as cheaply as we
>do here in Arkansas right away, but there's always all kinds of costs
>starting something new. Contact John Robinson, University of Arkansas
>501-673-2661. He's the Director of the Arkansas Rice Research Center
>and, if you ask nicely, will provide you
>1. with all sorts extension bulletins on rice production
>2. contacts nearer your agroecoregion working on rice
>3. probably advice that you carefully examine whether rice is really
>suited to your conditions (is that ground ever dry?), experience,
>equipment (do you plan to seed from the air?), available capital. and the
>ten million (give or take) other questions you'll might want to consider
>before you jump into yet another project.
>
>Good luck

Thanks for the info. I sometimes work in Asia, now Africa too, so I will be
doing more of a subsistence thing--something sustainable, vs seeding from
air. We'll have a seedbed and transplant by hand into flooded land as that
land is always slightly flooded. It is never dry.

I will follow up your leads. I also have a little info on paddy cultivation
from the Philippines that I picked up while teaching there. I'm interested
in sustainable scale, which to me means more of a rice garden than a rice
farm. We also have the capability to establish paddies on slightly higher
ground--I am more confident about paddy culture as I've seen it and can
figure out much. However if we can do things without earth moving that seems
to me more sustainable (because of less energy capital required) than making
paddies. To the extent that I can work with existing contours, I shall, with
the notable exception of doing a little hand reshaping to establish a
chinampas/aquaculture system.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and The Forest Ecosystem
Food Network. Copyright, 1996, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 2052, Ocala
FL 34478 USA YankeePerm@aol.com

We don't have time to rush.