Fukuoka

Meet Maki Gurung: a half-Nepali, half-Japanese, young farmer who lives in the village of Patishwora in Gorkha. Maki is a self-described anarchist, who after many years of political activism decided to return to his ancestral land in Gorkha and start farming the land, Fukuoka-style.

Manisoba Fukuoka was a Japanese farmer who, over the course of thirty years, developed a style of natural farming. Fukuoka's philosophy is that of no-till agriculture, with minimal human interference. Tilling the soil, he said, disrupts the natural ecosystems and organisms which sustain it, and creates a cycle which people then have to continue to always plow. Nature is perfect in the way it operates, and trying to change or "improve" it only creates more labor in the end. So Fukuoka's style involves scattering seeds on top of un-tilled fields, the propagation of wild vegetables, and minimal to no weeding (and in fact rethinking all-together the idea of what a "weed" is). Fukuoka wrote many books, most popularly One Straw Revolution, which I highly recommend to everyone, regardless of their interest in agriculture.

After learning of Fukuoka, and coming from a quite progressive farming family himself, Maki sought to prove the concept of natural farming. More than that, he wants to show that it's possible for anyone to live self-sufficiently and sustainably off of the land. In order to really prove that everyone can live this way, he chose the worst possible piece of land to work (seriously the worst land I've ever seen: horribly depleted, super heavy soil, and almost constantly in a state of drought.

Maki has an orchard, grows grains, and vegetables (though he's slowly weaning himself off of annuals). Walking through his orchard is like walking through a terraced forest. Because of the unique climate of the Nepali mid-hills, you'll find avocado, apple, and citrus on the same terrace.
This year, Maki hopes to be completely food self sufficient, the last piece of the puzzle being cooking oil (and salt, which will always have to be bought...). This was filled by nijier, a local wild plant whose seeds are quite fatty, and can make for good oil.

Going forward, Maki hopes to gradually move towards complete self-sufficiency. Next season he's growing cotton for clothes, and we just finished making enough soap for at least a year. Maki recognizes that it took Fukuoka thirty years to perfect his method, so he knows that he is in this for the long haul.

Nijier seeds drying, after we harvested, threshed, and
winnowed it 

Maki's project is also one of regeneration, and after many years of natural
 farming the soil will slowly regain it's health. To maintain this, he avoids
 tilling, only doing so if there is a failed harvest (which there was last season...
on the bright side, I got to learn how to plow with oxen!)

The soil is so bad that Maki made these bags, filled with
forest soil, to grow annual vegetables in. The bags allow
for spot irrigation, which saves a lot of water also. Next
season, Maki plans on digging pits and dumping the soil to
grow veggies.

Maki's house, which, since he does not believe in employing
people, he built himself