Polyculture Farming – the way forward

Organic Farm Share is a polyculture farming system (poly meaning many). This is in contrast to the conventional method of monoculture farming practices (mono meaning single), where crops are grown in rows such as rows of cabbages or rows of apricot trees. Monoculture farming is in complete contrast to how plants grow in nature and is one of the major reasons agriculture has such a detrimental effect on our environment. A polyculture system, on the other hand, mimics nature. In the photo below, you can see a polyculture test plot. Sitting in the midst of the vegetables is Jonathan, one of Organic Farm Share’s key consultants.

A good example of how polyculture works can be seen when we look at corn. Corn takes a lot of nitrogen out of the soil. In Australia, we import around 50% of our fertilisers including nitrogen, which is sprayed onto soil to replace what has been removed by the corn. In a polyculture system, when growing corn for example, one grows legumes such as beans nearby which draw nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it into the soils. Nature also utilises animal waste. The manure from one average cow will put 105kg nitrogen, 37kg calcium, 15kg phosphorous, 14kg potassium and 12kg magnesium back into the soil. In other words, 10 cows on a property will put well over 1 tonne of nitrogen back into the soil every year.

Polyculture farming not only works in a symbiotic way like nature but also produces a far greater amount of food per acre than conventional farming.

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