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Takao Furuno has developed and disseminated a
sustainable, integrated organic rice and duck farming
system that significantly increases yields and has been
replicated in tens of thousands of locations across Asia.
Rather than using chemical inputs, Furuno introduces ducks
into rice paddies to fertilize and strengthen rice seedlings
and protect them from pests and weeds. This process
boosts farmers' incomes and decreases their work load,
while reducing environmental damage and increasing food
security.
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In the next three decades, population growth will lead to a
70 percent increase in the demand for rice. The Green
Revolution, which increased food yields through intensive
mono-cropping and use of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides
and herbicides, is now recognized as unsustainable and
environmentally unsound. Annual increases in the use of
chemical fertilizers now outstrip the growth of rice yields,
causing ever declining incomes and intensifying rural-tourban
flight. Alternative systems are needed. In the mid
1970s, Takao Furuno, a high-spirited farmer who had been
influenced by Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," determined
to turn his farm organic. Furuno spent ten years doing the
backbreaking work of pulling out weeds by hand. In 1988,
he came upon a traditional practice of using aigamo ducks
to protect rice. The ducks eat insect pests and snails. They
also use their feet to dig up weed seedlings, in the process
oxygenating the water and strengthening the roots of rice
plants. As a result of what Furuno lovingly calls the "duck
effect," his farm yields have soared.
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Furuno's duck-rice system is the result of continuous study
of a natural symbiotic relationship and years of trial-anderror
adjustments: One season, disease destroyed his
entire crop. For three years, Furuno's ducks were eaten by
dogs until he got the idea to install electric fences. Furuno
has identified the optimal age at which ducklings should be
released into paddies, the number that should be introduced
per tenth of hectare and the moment when ducks should be
removed. Through experimentation, he discovered that the
addition of certain fish (loaches) and a nitrogen-fixing weed
(azolla) to paddies boosted rice and duck growth. In
addition, Furuno has successfully marketed duck rice, which
now sells at a 20 to 30 percent premium over
conventionally-grown rice in Japan and other countries.
Today, his 3,2 hectare farm gives him an income of US$
160,000 a year, including that of organic vegetables, eggs,
and ducklings. Having demonstrated that small-scale
organic farming can be highly productive, he is
disseminating his ideas. He has authored best-selling books
on his methods such as "The Power of Duck" as well as an
aigamo duck cookbook. Through his writings, travels,
lectures and cooperation with agricultural organizations and
governments, his methods have spread to more than
75,000 farmers in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines,
Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
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"My dream," says Takao
Furuno, "is to see the ducks
cheerfully swimming around in
all the rice paddies of Japan
and other Asian countries."
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