Technology Keys
what we see the Creator do as closely as we can, in a manageable agricultural way.
The six technology keys of Farming God's Way are:
1) No Ploughing
2) 100% cover with God’s blanket that is 2.5cm thick
3) Practicing biodiversity through rotations, and cover cropping
4) Feeding plants from the top
5) Ensuring canopy cover
6) Permanence
1) No Ploughing
There is no ploughing in God’s creation. The earliest mention of ploughing in Bible times was with very light spear tip tines, which did not invert the soil, but instead loosened the soil to a very shallow depth for planting. It was only in the 1800’s when soil inversion really started with the use of mouldboard ploughs. However, in the last 40 years there has been a big shift of commercial agriculture away from ploughing again, with hundreds of millions of hectares are farmed without ploughing around the world currently.
2) 100% Cover with God’s Blanket that is 2.5cm thick
God’s Blanket has the potential to reveal God’s promised abundance in our fields. It provides the ideal environment for the healing of the land to take place. So do not burn or even plough in God’s blanket into the soil as God created it to be on the top.
3) Practise Biodiversity
Plant biodiversity can be practiced through rotations, rotations within rotations and cover cropping. All of these methods have been shown to be crucial in maintaining healthy soil and crops.
4) Feeding Plants from the Top
In Farming God's Way, we try to emulate what God has shown to us in His creation by allowing the blanket to gradually decompose on the soil surface; placing nutrients right near the plant’s roots without mixing it in; and using high quality Farming God's Way compost as our preferred input type. The details of Farming God's Way “Surface Composting Techniques”, for higher value crops are discussed in the “Vegetable Guide”.
5) Ensuring Canopy Cover
God designed plants to have a dense canopy of leaves and branches formed by plants in close proximity to each other. We use the principle of canopy cover to shade out weeds; encourage competition between plants; and create an optimal inter canopy climate for crop growth. The way that we achieve canopy cover is by adjusting plant population densities. Larger plants get planted in wide rows and in-row spacing but as plants get smaller their row spacing reduces along with the in-row spacing.
6) Permanence
Permanence brings order into our fields and ensures that planting is done accurately on the same planting line every season. Permanence is established by using both measuring ropes and permanent pegs. In fields where we would typically grow field crops like maize, sorghum, soyabeans, groundnuts etc we encourage farmers to place permanent pegs preferably after every 10 rows of 75cm. Permanence will greatly improve your crops and your profitability.