Farmers Can Learn To Escape The Drought If We Examine How They Have Abused The Soil!

In Agriculture: (1) When we have water, we have too much; surprisingly, we are happy! (upper image, from benarnews.org); (2) When we don’t have water, we are unhappy, of course! (lower image, from philstar.com).

You are hot and I am hot! How do you explain the hot days? El Niño is here, and ANN says it could last 12 months (Author Not Named, undated, US National Ocean Service, oceanservice.noaa.gov). What can we do about it? That’s another question.

In Agriculture, as the lower image indicates, Romina Cabrera says “31 Provinces Now Affected By Drought” (10 April 2024, PhilStar, philstar.com). I conservationist say, actually, all PH provinces are affected by the drought, but especially the farmlands, because they are used to having much water for irrigating the crops. Old habits die hard.

According to Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org), there are 82 provinces in the Philippines; that means more than 1/3 of the country is now short of water for irrigation, commerce and village uses.

Ms Romina says, as a reporter, from an unstated source:

Drought conditions are characterized by below normal rainfall or a 21 to 60 percent reduction from the average for five consecutive months, or way below normal rainfall for three consecutive months.

So, even during a drought, there is rainfall, if not much. And what do farmers do with the water, from the rain or from the irrigation canal? They always try to flood the field – and I say that is wasting water!

With little or no irrigation water, why don’t farmers practice what I will call here Rotavator WEALTH, which stands for Rotavator Working With Waste Enriching Area Leading To Territorial Health.

And how does a farmer operate the rotavator to create that WEALTH? Simply run the rotavator without setting a depth of cut – that will cut the weeds and/or crop leftovers to pieces and at the same time cut the soil and simultaneously mix the plant and soil materials together – you have a WEALTH of a field!

What happens when you produce a Rotavator WEALTH? Three things:

(1)          You don’t need irrigation.

(2)          Your soil will be healthy; you don’t need fertilizer, neither organic nor chemical.

(3)          Your crop will be healthy.

(4)          Your healthy crop will give you a healthy yield.

(5)          Your family’s bank account will be healthy!

#1, Because the HEALTH layer you created will tap the capillary water from the underground and that would be enough for your crop’s liquid needs.

#2, Because already the WEALTH layer is your fertilizer!

#3, Because your crop will be nourished by natural richness, it will be naturally healthy.

#4, Because your crop is healthy, it will give you a healthy harvest.

#5, Because you don’t buy fertilizer or pesticide, whatever you get from your sales is your profit! Minimum cost, maximum returns.

Now, since not one of the rotavator models existing today will produce automatically what I have just described as WEALTH on the field:

Now, to reinvent the rotavator! Any volunteer to finance The Rotavator WEALTH Project?@517