Friday, December 19, 2008

"So you want to grow rice"

In the Philippines there is a serious lack of organic matter, good topsoil should contain 5% organic matter. Test results in Luzon, Negros, Mindanao on typical rice, sugar and coconut land shows an adverage of around 1%

To grow at all rice, sugar and other plants require six essential nutrients, these are

1.
NITROGEN-(N)
2.
PHOSPHEROS-(P)
3.
POTASSIUM-(K)
4.
CALCIUM
5.
SULPHUR
6.
MAGNESIUM


Of the other 52 micro-elements, 5 or 6 are necessary to have anything like a decent yield. For a good crop 20 of them should be available in the soil.

25 years of monoculture and chemicals has taken its toll on the soil of the Philippines, if everyone starts to work together, testing their soil, and adding the required nutrients (and not chemicals) in a few years the trend would start to reverse… the alternative would be eventual FAMINE, and possible death, something that is not worth contemplating

Start to work with your soil NOW!! we still have time