-----Original Message-----
From: AN [an@hcm.fpt.vn]
Paul Harris [paul.harris@adelaide.edu.au] wrote:
>My theory is that every system will fail if pushed hard enough, and the
>more we try for maximum performance/efficiency the more we have to
>"manage"(interfre with) the system as it becomes unstable prior to
>failure.
>
>This may all be a bit off topic for the paper and probably spans all the
>current discussions but in my opinion the other challenge is the "use
>and discard" mentality.
>
>I believe there are very few technical difficulties with "integrated
>biosystems" - the real challenge is to change societies attitudes and
>mindsets so adoption can follow. Successfull demonstrations are one of
>the best ways of doing this, as far as I can see, but we also need to
>work on attitudes.
I have an other comment:
All the activities in a IBS must be based in local environment in order to
minimize input cost. It will be very difficult and expensive if we set up
the Micro-farming System of Philippines in Sweden.
There are many micro-farming systems like that in Vietnam. Most of
agricultural activities are in the hand of small-scale farming. In many
areas, the average cultivated land per person is less than 500 square meter.
To survive, small farmers have to optimise the use of available resources.
Sunny, hot and wet climate is their facility. They have created integrated
farming systems such as VAC (garden-pond-stable system), rice-fish. Farmers
use to apply micro-farming with low input, such as, growing mushroom from
rice straw, raising scavenging chicken, raising duck on the boundary of rice
field and duckweed, raising fish with grasses from water edge area and human
waste. They breed young animals from their farms (local breeds). The input
almost is nothing except labor. farmers are skilled in those activities. If
not, they should have died.
The experiences from local people are abundant. If the application of
micro-farming develop and base on the local knowledge and experiences, the
system will be low cost and more sustainable
Regards,
Bui Xuan An
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 11 2000 - 22:02:06 EDT